Three years ago today, my world changed forever. Our Ayla Ming was born and I became a mom. I had no idea how different life would become. That day, I learned what love was in the purest of forms. The love you have for your own child is unlike anything else.
In these three years, I have learned so much from her. Who knew this teeny-tiny person could make
me a better person. I love her with everything I have and could not imagine what my life would be without her in it.
She is the girliest of girls. Pink, sparkles, glitter, dolls, princesses, nail polish, jewelry, dress-up clothes, shoes--she loves it all. She is, in every sense, my mini-me. I wanted a girly-girl and I definitely got her. :)
She loves music. Right now her favorite is the Zac Brown Band. She knows lots of the lyrics to several songs. I can always catch her belting out her favorite lines as we drive in the car. She also loves her nursery rhyme songs--Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald, Shoo Fly, etc. To go along with her love of music, she LOVES to dance. She has some pretty good moves. Totally didn't get them from her parents! I really think music and/or dance will play a large part in her future.
Other things that keep her busy--coloring, painting, Play-Doh, bubbles, listening to stories, watching her favorite movies (most involve Disney princesses at the moment), Barbies, building forts out of blankets, pretending, making her little sister laugh, going to the park, and going to Target. :) More than anything, she loves when we chase her around the house and tickle her. She laughs and screams and just falls to the ground out of pure happiness. It's so funny and completely contagious. I often find myself rolling on the ground giggling with her.
She has an odd bedtime ritual--for New Year's (yes, 9 months ago), I said "Happy New Year!" as I shut the door and told her good night. Well, that stuck. And so did "Happy Valentine's Day." So now, before we shut her door for the night, she says, "Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, no talking, I love you, {smooch-smooch}, {shh-shh}, good night, I love you!" And then we have to say the exact thing back. I have no idea how long this is going to go. I swear she has OCD sometimes. She needs certain things in her bedroom when she goes to bed. They all have to be in their place. No more, no less. I think once we leave the room, she scans the room to make sure everything is right. If not, she calls for us to fix it. Either something is missing or there's something in there that shouldn't be.
Mealtime is still a battle. Sigh. It's totally a power thing. She doesn't want to back down and I don't either. She has gotten a little better about trying new things. Even if she only has one bite of something new, I praise her for at least giving it a shot. Every now and then, she discovers something new that she likes. We're very very slowly adding to her short menu of things she'll eat. Thankfully, she still loves just about any fruit. If we didn't have that, I'd go completely nuts. Someday she'll eat like me. :) She does love her desserts though...in that case, she's very much like me. :)
She has been perfecting her somersault these past few weeks. She's getting to be pretty good at them and is quite proud of herself when she completes one.
She's as sassy as ever and sometimes I feel like tearing my hair out because I don't know how to handle it but on the other hand, she is still my sweet little girl. I really can't believe how quickly these last three years have gone. One minute she's this tiny baby and all of a sudden she's this smart, beautiful, goofy, funny, lovable, talkative three-year old. Crazy.
Ayla Ming, we love you so so so much. You are a wonderful daughter and such a good big sister. We can't wait to see what this next year brings!
After dinner, we had a surprise for Ayla...three giant lanterns to celebrate her birthday! Grandma brought her outside blindfolded.
After lanterns, we went back inside and sang happy birthday to her and let her blow out a candle on a single piece of cake. Cake an hour past her bedtime. It is her birthday, after all. :) 
I was actually kind of bummed when it was time for her to go to bed. It's been a really really fun couple of days with her. I love seeing her so happy. I hope we made her feel extra special. :)
For some reason, it really hit me that she was turning 3 when I dug out three little pink candles to put on her cake. I can't believe how fast these three years went.
I mentally prepared myself for the fact that Ayla would probably only eat Cheetos, cake and ice cream for lunch so when she happily munched away on everything I put on her plate, I was more than pleasantly surprised so I couldn't help but take a million pictures. She didn't FINISH everything, but she was eating so I was happy. :)
My little niece Makayla with her awesome little piggy-tails!
After she opened all of her presents, we brought her downstairs so she could see her present from us. We got her one of those little playhouses. The look on her face was so awesome. When she's happy or excited about something, she makes this specific look. Her whole face lit up when she saw it and she couldn't wipe "the look" off her face as she stepped into it. Love it. It was so fun to see all the kids pile into this thing. It's pretty roomy!
