Happy 4th Birthday!

Today Eliza turned 4 years old.  It was a great quiet of sorts days.  She woke up to her traditional donut with candles and Richard and I sang happy birthday to her.  I stayed up late wrapping her presents.  She was not at all impressed with, I guess because it was mostly educational games.  I will have to pull them out and actually play them with her.  Then later in the afternoon we went to a friend of friends family pool and swam for about an hour.  She wanted "big noodles" which equates to Udon noodles for her dinner.  We made a new treat that I saw on facebook, they were O.K.  I do not know if I will make them again because of the calories and I think there are better tasting things for the caloric intake but she liked participating and she could do most herself.  She got to watch a couple of her favorite shows and off to bed we went.  Four is turning out to be a sweet age.  :)  I will post her answers to the yearly questions in a couple of days.  Next week is vacation bible school so pictures to come.

Mother's Day Present

What better Mother's Day presnt then a picture of my love!  Thanks Eliza and Daddy!

 Silly Girl!

 Pure contentment!

 The helmet is half of her body.  Hee!

 I wish this was a Black Eye Susan.  But she loves her flowers!

My silly girl, loves her green gum!

Post Horse Show~ Our little strawberry girl~ 2013

Her "See these!" face!

Competition-Our little Preakness 2013

Eliza's first pre horse show at three years of age!

Our girl was a champ, not a champion but a champ.  I kindof felt like one of those Toddler and Tiara mom's but on a horse making sure Eliza was (in Eliza's words) "show ready."  It was a great event Grammie and Granddad, Oma and Opa, Uncle Bill and Aunt Abbie all came to her first show.  She did "amazing" in our eyes.  As a professional let's just say she was not the "leader of the pack" however, it was a good learning experience, forgetting to put her gloves on,doing her hair to early, losing a button for her pants and not practicing with her feet in teh higher position causing her to lean back.   But we are so very PROUD of Eliza and she wants to do it again (in her words) "tomorrow."  I think that mommy can wait on tomorrow.

This is Eliza with Michelle.  She is the one who has been training her the last few weeks.  She is a senior at my school (though nothing to do with Eliza's training, it was just coincedence that she waws assigned to Eliza.)  She has a gentle soul and works well with Eliza.  Eliza  rode CoCo today.  He is a bay pony.  She did 3 divisions walk, walk-trot, and trot or walk over the poles.  Now for the competition pictures in the next post.  If horse lovers are reading this post.  Both Eliza's daddy and mommy have never rode so please excuse me if the termology is wrong.  ;)

SNEAKY

Growing up, I always thought of sneaky as a "bad" word with a bad connotation but Eliza uses it as a cute word, saying, "Sneaky, Sneaky Sneaky" when she is being playful.  This picture of her captures her in her "Sneaky way!"

Oma's Dresses

Oma started making Eliza's dresses around the age of two, we have many in between they are such treasures and keep sakes for Eliza to hand down to her daughter.  We are so very lucky!

Omi and Aunt Abbie teach Eliza the love of a garden!

Eliza loves gardens, plants, planting, worms, flowers.

Daddy's Ring

Eliza's daddy so loves her.  When we were at Amanda and Lee's wedding, Richard found a little jewelry shop.  They had children gold rings, he let her pick out the ring, bridge seeting with a blue topaz and she loves it.  She wears it to the Daddy daughter dances and pretends to marry Daddy nightly.  It is so cute.  I tease Richard, saying, I thought you were only going to get married once.  I think we have had at least thirty wedding ceremonies in the last year.  Our Daddy is one lucky man!  Two Spicy girls that love him so very much!

You can see her SOUL through her eyes!

SO LOVED!

To Eliza's birth mom!

Dear Women which I share my MOST TREASURED FORTUNE With:

As we embark on this 3rd day as Mother and Daughter, we share this day with you.  You are the reason I am a mommy, not just a mom or a mother but a mommy!  For without you there would be no Eliza.  It was not just a physical sacrifice but I am sure a mental one too!  What I would tell you today is she is SO LOVED.  I know that every parent says how wonderful their child or children are but she is WONDERFUL.  She is not perfect but WONDERFUL for she is a masterful teacher and caregiver.  She is spicy, has a mind of her own, has a clear sense of what is right and wrong, stays true to her values but underneath her hard "survival core" there is a sweet, loving, God fearing preschooler.  She makes me laugh and she has taught me so much about myself and made he appreciate my upbringing so much more.  She is FUN!  Sure, there are tough days but the tough days means that she is STRONG.  She is a fighter and she has a fighter attitude towards everything she tries with gumption.  But, she still likes to be swaddled, held, needs the sense of security and oh, boy do we have enough people that are willing and want to meet her needs.  When she looks back on her I HOPE she can say it was full of laughs and giggles, learning, security and boundaries.

At three years and 11 months in age, loves:
-gymanstics, horse backriding, Diego, gone to her first broadway musical- Peter Pan, loves going to the Smithsonian, visits to the local Salisbury Zoo and to the Washington DC zoo, loves going for SUSHI and Dim Sum, has a close group of friends including: Brynlee, Finn, Kadence, Ayden, Zachary, Violet, Charlie, Emily, Ryker, Danica, Molly, Hayden, Lailan, Jacob (in no particular order and I am sorry if I left out any.)  She has a social calendar busier than mine but that is not hard.  LOL!, loves Disney and Nick JR., she loves plants, gardens, enjoys, painting, coloring, tracing letters, skipping, dancing, loves the show "Big Bang Theory" and calls Sheldon, "My buddy!" ( I know, not the best mother award here but we laugh and laught!)

I know you SO LOVED your baby girl too!  Here is how, I know.  I know that you probably look at every little girl in your provience, maybe even scourer over blogs looking for that marking.  She wears that marking proudly for you!  I do NOT have the answers for her only you do, but the answer I have for her is you are SO LOVED! 

I do NOT have the answers for her only you do, but the answer I have for her is you are SO LOVED! So, Happy 3rd Mother's Day to you also! My little preschooler and our baby will remain and will always be SO LOVED, you can reassure that!


Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

Eliza and Eliza's mommy






Love,



Eli

Riding a bike and training wheels

Today I realized that you are definitely 3 1/2.  We bought you a Trek bike today with training wheels and it was so different from when I wanted to buy you a bike for Christmas. You were not scared.  You did AMAZING!   It only took you a few tries to learn how to peddle the bike and you are catching on quickly on how to use the brakes for your bike.  You are really looking like a big girl. Of course you wanted the blue bike but you were more comfortable with the purple bike.  Daddy and I thought it was cute that you changed your mind once you tried and felt more comfortable with the purple one.

You have your second flu of the season.  You are such a brave little girl.  You have been switching between the red or purple medicine.  At first you preferred the grape but as time has gone on you keep choosing the cherry.

Tonight we made home-made play dough.  You were so excited to make your Daddy a heart and a star.  You made him the cutest blue butterfly.  Of course you wanted your play dough in your signature colors of blue and pink.  O.K. , Mommy talked you inot the pink but blue was definately your choice.

You have started to "read" mommy and daddy "night night stories."  You read us Barbie mermaid and I ready you Tallulah's Solo and Daddy read you Mercier Mayer "Going to Bed Book."

I can not wait to see what tomorrow brings.  I hope to upload a picture off of Daddy's phone from you today.

Love you sweet "Odette".  Your Derick loves you too!

Happy Family Day!

Dear Eliza,

Happy 3rd Family Day!  This time three years ago I could barely sleep making sure that the crib was rolled into our room, taking your clothes out of the suit case and setting up your crib.  I wanted to pinch myself... could all of this be really true?  Were we really about to meet you.  Would you take to us?  Would you like us?  Could we provide for all of your needs and wants? Would you reject us?  How would we tell your life story?  How would we honor you, your heritage and yet show you our earthly ways?  I had planned and planned for you, written about you , made things for you, talked about you, cried over you, and laugh and loved with joy about the chance for me to become your mommy to share this joy with one other women in the world, one other women that decided to love you enough to give you life in her womb, loved you enough to want a different life for you, to dress you warmly and leave you with a warm bottle of milk, and so I share her with you.

Let me tell you what three years has brought me little one.  These have been the BEST three years of my life  Watching you grow, learn and blossom.  Today you are at the top of your height class.  I have to ask your daddy how tall you are because he actually took you to your last doctor's visit.  You weight 30.5 pounds.  It was funny because on your 3rd birthday you weighed 24 pounds.  You are involved with gymnastics and can do a forward roll and are downing a back walk over with assistance.  You love gymnastics.  You are still the youngest one at the barn.  You love riding Monty (all grey horse) and Tini (short for Caramel Apple Martini).  He is  taller brown speckled pony that you have come to love.  YOu love riding but more that riding you love all of the animals at the barn.  You love Ms. Jen's Josie (her different colored eyed dog) and the two barn cats that Ms. Jen saved.  You love the miniture pony and the donkey on the farm.  I love that you love learning.

You are going to two preschools this year.  Partly, because you are a little stinker.  You love that nickname.  You go to Creative Corner a private preschool and a local public preschool where you are a peer model for other students you age because you are smart and you are an early talker.  Although, you are smart, you are very kind and always think of others before yourself.  This is a great quality to have and I am impressed that you have this quality since you are an only child.  You are a stubborn child but it is O.K. because you remind me of your daddy.  I call you spicy when you are stubborn.  Yesterday, you and mommy went to paint some pottery as a special mommy daughter bonding time.  I told you were creative and you told me, " Mommy I am not creative I like to hibernate."  You have such a strong vocabulary for such a young age even if sometimes you do not use the word correctly you are not afraid to try out different words.  Another reason why you go to two schools is because at the end of last year and during the summer you were keeping mommy and daddy up to all hours of the late 11 pm or later evening.  I only mention this because I know in time I will forget this tidbit of information as time heals.  I wish I could keep you small forever but you have so much to offer this world little girl that I do not want to hold you back.

Your latest thing is that you have renamed your baby doll that we named together, Ellie to Layla.  I love that name and not sure but sometimes when we play houses you say, Mommy you are the Mommy and Daddy, you are the Daddy and I am Layla or sometimes you like to be your baby self.  One of the other things that you like to do is give "family hugs" and "family kisses."  You sit in the middle of daddy and I you pull us both down to your level and wrap one around daddy and the other  around mommy and pull us in to hug us or kiss us.  It is so cute.  You sometimes say, I love being a family and that totally melts my heart.

This year is the first year for you to be hospitalized and have a IV because of a bad stomach virus that was going around.  You were so very sick vomiting.  In the mist of you being sick, you were always thinking of us.  You said to me, "Mama, if something happens to me you go and get that boy you want."  Little girl, my little girl, I told you this that night and I will tell you again this, the only one I want is you.  You are our heart.  Maybe we may grow our family but that does not replace you and we love you so very much.

This year, you have loved to throw parties.  You had your first friend birthday party this year, and even though it rained you still enjoyed it.  You love planning and throwing other members of your families birthdays.  You and Omi threw me a beautiful butterfly themed brithday.  You came up with the idea and wanted to make me a yata (pinata), you planned it all the way down to the connoli and connoli cake.  You are throwing Oma a heart birthday.  You really wanted a heart birthday but you graciously gave that idea to Oma.  Opa you want to give a Ravens party for and you planned your Yi Yi's party with a duck and wildlife party picking out all of his party favors and everything.

I could go on and on and I should.... but for now.... Happy 3rd Family Day, you lil' stinker!

Love always and forever,

Your Mama