My Baby is 3!

I just finished a two-day project where I took are home movies to date and transferred them to DVD. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was rather forced into it as I ran out of space on the camera on Pumpkin's big day. Well, finally that project is done. It was a tedious job, but it filled me with such sentimentality that I was tearful throughout each video I watched.

I guess as Mom, seeing your child every day, you tend to take for granted the changes, developments and growth. I'm not clueless about it all, but the fact is that in watching the home movies from the day we were first given this chubby little black-eyed doll, I had forgotten so many things. How chubby she really was. That Pumpkin was still a baby when we got her, not an infant or newborn, but enough of a baby to allow me to enjoy most of the joys just the same. There were outfits I'd forgotten....AND HER SQUEAKY SHOES!

All the firsts we've blessedly been able to experience with the joyous gift were played out before me: first steps, first holidays, first counting to 20, first meetings with grandparents and family....it is all there for the taking. I am still so filled with emotion that I can barely let Pumpkin sleep without wanting to take her in my arms and squeeze the air out of her or kiss her from head to toe.

Mind you, I say this knowing the baby in those films is not the toddler living in our house now. There are similarities, but there are also v-a-s-t differences. While she came to us saying only "Mama, Da-Da and Ba-Bye," her vocabulary now is expansive and often time explosive. Recent entries include:

"I need air conditioning."
"Oh, that's right. Sorry, I forgot."
"When we get on the airplane at the airplane-port, will I see my blue ball in the clouds?"
"You do it, you're big. I'm too little; my hands are little."
"Really?"
"I'll eat it-do it-pick it up tomorrow."

I could go on and on. And those are the nice phrases. There are also the occasional (less now that she's seemed to have settled at the new house and school):
"I'll beat your ass."
"I'm angry with you. (Pointing her finger at us)now you go the the bad chair."
"No I don't."

It's a plethora of verbiage spewing forth at any given time. Overall, it's enjoyable because we just wonder where in the world she gets it all. For example, the other day while laying down for her nap, she looked around our bedroom and pointed out that our vaulted ceiling was a big triangle. Then, she looked at the television and said it was a rectangle. The fan; a circle.

Pumpkin has a vivid imagination and curiosity. She took a paper tube from wrapping paper, held it up to her head and (with her safety goggles from her work bench) told me she was "going under the water." She took a string of pearls and tied them around the neck of her rocking horse because "he has a scarf 'cause he's cold." Oh, and she also took her jumping rope and tied it around the horse's head and neck like a bridle. Oh, somebody stop me! I'm becoming one of "those parents."

In short, our Pumpkin is growing into a little girl. She is no longer my chubby little "Choo-Choo" with the bowl cut hair. I'm am somewhat happy to note that she still has the widow's peak in her bangs, but that is about all of her baby face left to her. She is 41 inches tall and weighs 36.5 pounds. She is tall, solid and full of attitude. She is also mannerly and puts her clothes in the hamper nightly. She'll even put her night-time pull-up in the garbage on her own.

A mixed bag, my Pumpkin is. A gift that is layered in shades of joy, happiness, obstinacy, orneriness, determination and love. How lucky we are to enjoy unwrapping those layers throughout our many years ahead.

Happy 3rd Birthday, my sweet baby.