My baby girl is getting so excited about her upcoming birthday. She tells everyone, even the occasional stranger in the produce aisle, that she's "gonna be FWEE candles!" and that she's going to have cupcakes, and chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream. We've even practiced blowing out candles. Let me tell you, the look on her sweet lil' face the first time she successfully blew out all of the wicks on the three wick candle we were practicing on, after being so excited about the idea of her "fwee candles", was priceless. As for me, I'm not sure I'm as ready as she is for my my "baby" girl to turn three.

And it seems that as she gets closer and closer to three, there are things that she does so differently than she did just a few short months ago. For instance, just look at the page she's painting above. Not so long ago, she would have paid little attention to the lines and would have just been content to put as much color in random spots as possible, and maybe paint a simple "smiley-face". Not any more. Although she still likes to add random splashes of color here and there, I watched for nearly half an hour as she carefully painted each of those boxes yellow..trying hard to stay in the lines. The growth and development that occurs in early childhood has always fascinated me, and now that I have a front row seat to observe it in my own child...sometimes I just have to sit back in awe, and watch.