Happy Birthday, Clara!

We partied all day today for Clara's 4th birthday (which is not actually until Wednesday but today was Daddy's day off). I think she had a great time being the centre of attention. She's been looking so forward to this everyday for the past month (ever since Elizabeth's birthday). We made homemade pizza for lunch, went bowling this afternoon, and then back to Grammy and Grampy's to have cake and open presents.

Daddy pinning the tail on the donkey.

Where in the world did the last four years go? I just can't believe how grown up our first baby is. She is becoming so much more expressive with hugs and kisses and "I love yous." The other day she was pretending she had a greeting card for me. About a dozen times that morning she came to me and said, "Mommy, I have a card for you. It says..." One time it said that she loved me and wanted to give me a hug and a kiss. The next one said she loved Daddy. The next one said she hoped Elizabeth and her would be feeling better soon (they've both been sick with some sort of cold or something). One "card" in particular was rather revealing. She said, "Mommy, I love you so much. I'm sorry I was mad at you and the baby." I said "what baby?" And she pointed to my belly. I got down and hugged her and asked why she was mad at the baby in Mommy's belly and she said, "I don't know." I think she's a lot like me. Her little mind never stops. She's constantly thinking and sometimes it just gets overloaded in there for a four year old. She is trying to come to peace with the imminent arrival of another family member. She also keeps saying lately that she wants to be a baby again. I'm sure it will all work out. I guess change is difficult no matter what age we are.

Elizabeth seems a bit more nonchalant about the baby coming. I'm sure she'll have her bouts of jealousy when she wants to cuddle and Mommy can't because she's feeding or changing the baby. But for now she seems pretty good with everything. The past few days she keeps lifting my shirt and saying, "Hello, baby" to my belly. Elizabeth didn't enjoy the bowling quite as much as the rest of us this afternoon.

She spent the entire time in Grampy's arms with a frown on her face. She kept saying to me, "It's really loud." I'm glad we didn't attempt to take them glow bowling. That would have been just too much.