Julia: 3 Years Old!

Happy Birthday, My dear Julia!

I'm just going to say this: you are one of the coolest people I've ever met.

Most days you act twice your age, and you're more capable than many adults I know.

You may just be three,but you are an expert game-player, budding artist, hilarious-face-maker, puzzle master. You are sweet, and sensitive, and fierce, and loyal, and feisty, and clever.

The Little Mermaid and Flounder- By Julia 10/15

Presenting a new puzzle for a puzzle princess!

Your personal motto is: "I am brave, and strong, and I can do anything."

You can be so sweet, thoughtful, and kind, especially to animals and your brother.

But, you are also such an amazing goofball, and make some of the funniest faces I've ever seen. You LOVE to make people laugh.

You Love books!

We found a Little Library!

Reading while walking!

You LOVE accessories, shiny things, "treasures," sparkles, and jewelry.

Your favorite birthday present: A "Crown!"

But don't take my word for it. Here's a snapshot of you as a Three-year old in your own words.

Favorite Food: "Spaghetti and Meatballs!"

Favorite Book: "Hello Kitty Book is my favorite book" <note: there is no Hello Kitty book>

Favorite Movie: "Frog Prince!"

What are you Good at? Blowing Bubbles, puzzles, and treasures

Favorite Song:  Frozen! Let it Go! Past not past, here I stand, here I stay! <STOMP!>

What do you want to be when you grow up: A Mermaid!

You definitely know what you want. Leading up to your birthday, I asked you what we should do to celebrate your birthday. You looked at me and said, "Well...sing me 'happy birthday' and bring me cupcakes and balloons!"

So...that's what we did! We took a family trip to the arboretum, came home, rested and played, went to dinner at Red Baby Taco, came back, sang to you, gave you cake and presents! Balloons weren't available, but you were okay with it!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Julia!

I asked you what your favorite part of your birthday was on the evening of October 11. 

You thought pensively for a moment and said wistfully "...the stars..."

I thought, "man, that's deep!"

Then you clarified..."The stars sprinkles on my cake."

Awesome!

You've grown from this...

To this...

To this...

To this...

And now...

You are such a lovely young lady. Strong, feisty, clever, lovely, stubborn, brave, talented and all around amazing.

Happy Birthday to you!....... and many, many, many more!

We love you to a million, billion, trillion pieces.

Big Kindergarten

Aidan,

It's so hard to believe that you are starting Kindergarten 1. It's cliche, but it seems just like yesterday that you were born. And now you are a Kindergartner!

Self-Portrait: Kindergarten 1

We had some fun on the first day of school taking a few photographs here and there.

You did have a massive boo boo on your forehead, but that didn't deter you. A band-aid for the road, some photoshop for the official portrait, and you were good to go.

Here's a snapshot of you as a kindergartner:

What do you want to be when you grow up? "A Siamese cat...no...a beast tiger!"
What do you think you'll learn about this year? "Uh....fish!"
What is your favorite book? Mungo and the spiders from space
What is your favorite food? 'Pudding...and mango' <although, you have wayy been into
Sushi lately! "Orange" is your favorite!
What is your favorite movie? The Croods! <although, you have also been wayyyy into Star Wars lately too!>
What are you good at? Legos! I'm good at jumping puddles! Doing some things...

Friends: 'Max and Lennon and Gabe!'

Favorite song: 'shine your way' and 'dinosaurs! Bump ba dump BA dump' (dinosaurs marching)

Your teachers are, again, Mr. Lewicki and Ms. Mary. You get to be in the same classroom again this year, with your friends Lennon and Barron. You are in PS2 at White Rock Montessori School.

We've already had some wonderful feedback from your teachers:

And...surprisingly...we've had some feedback from you...who is notoriously quiet on the goings on of school!

You told us that you ate lunch with Max on the first day...and with Simone (with a blush) on the second day.

You told us that you got to feed the ducks and color a duck with Ms. Mary.

You have sung us a few of the songs you're learning.

You also do resort to your old tricks:
Me: Hi! How was school!
You: I...don't think I can tell you now. We're in the car. I'll tell you when we get home.

... later...at home...
Me: We're home! Can you tell me now?
You: I don't think so....

We've also gotten to witness some of the magic of your school.

Mommy and I spent a day pretending to be students Billy Madison style, and we both wish we could have gone to your school!

Also, Mommy dropped you off late the other day (you had an appointment) and witnessed the warm welcome you got.

Simone, Aoife, and some other young ladies ran to meet you at the chain link fence. "Aidan! Aidan hi! Aidan!" "Aidan can you come to my house and make cupcakes with me?" You seemed oblivious to the girls' requests, and were psyched when Lennon ran out of the crowd to greet you.

You were not at all upset to see Mommy go....you are so happy to be in kindergarten!

The amazing puzzler!

Julia,

You never cease to amaze us and surprise us. You're not even 3 years old, yet sometimes you have the patience, smarts, and skills of a kid/grown-up 10 times your age!

The other day, Mommy and you went to Aunt Sham's house. After you were done claiming you treasures from her jewelry box - a shiny ring! a necklace!- you sat down to do some puzzles that Mommy brought for you to play with on a whim.

You see, you have done puzzles many times on the iPad, but never really showed any interest in real terrestrial puzzles.

But, that day at Aunt Sham's you were patient, clever, and resilient enough to finish THREE puzzles by working diligently and calmly and crazily smartly for about an hour!

By the time I finally got to see you do this trick, you were so confident that you could do it, that you needed no help at all! 

But you were super psyched!

"DADDY, I win the puzzle!!" 

Ever since, you've been kinda "into" puzzles pretty hard!

Mommy sent me these pictures! You were so excited! You announced "I win the puzzle!"

Double Thumbs-up

 And, later that night, we were all on the couch in the living room and I heard some scooching noises...then I realized that you were dragging the puzzle into the living room to show me that you had won this mega-big puzzle too! Amazing!

Now, it got a little dinged up in the travel and in some foot traffic. You noticed this and had to fix it immediately. It didn't matter that you noticed it was dinged up and had to fix it while you were literally on your way to the bathtub. You were not deterred by being a tad under-dressed.

And, you saw the whole thing through to completion!

At home or miles away,

Fully dressed, semi-clothed, or nude,

You are the ultimate puzzler-

You WIN the puzzle, dude!