Dahlia Turns Three

For months everyone had been hearing about Dahlia's third birthday. On October 14th the long-awaited day finally arrived. Dahlia's birthday fell on a Thursday, so she was able to celebrate with her classmates:

Mom and Dad were invited too. That is, as long as they remembered to bring cupcakes. Check out that birthday crown!

Once Dahlia got home, it was time to open presents. Dahlia was so excited. She couldn't wait to see what was in each of the boxes:

One of Dahlia's favorite gifts came from her cousins Abigail and Eloise -- a guitar!

Dahlia promptly put on a concert for the family. It was quite a show, complete with clapping and dancing:

At three years old, Dahlia now weighs 33 lbs (75th percentile) and is 37 inches tall (50th percentile). She speaks in full sentences, often moving quickly from topic to topic in the same sentence, and is non-stop energy. She loves riding her tricycle and picking up treasures (sticks), chalking the driveway, running, jumping, and being outdoors. In real life as well as in pretend, she loves pushing her shopping cart around, sitting in a shopping cart, going "shopping", checking out after shopping, and putting all the groceries away in their proper places. Everyday she asks to go shopping or to a restaurant. Indoors, she loves anything with Dora, Anpanman, and the Sesame Street gang and reads endless library books (current favorites include the Curious George and Mama Llama series). She also likes making bead necklaces, coloring, cutting, stickers, doing puzzles, listening and singing to music (the Japanese song "Ai Ai" being her favorite), and her Thomas train sets. Most of all, she loves entertaining, playing with, protecting, and occasionally torturing her baby brother Jonah.

It's been a good and eventful year for Dahlia - may her fourth year also be full of excitement, good health and happiness!