Free

No, not free, as in no cost or unbound.  Free...as in the number that comes after two.

Actually, to me, free means a little bit more than just turning Free years old.  It literally means free.  Emma is more and more free to be herself as she gets older.  Every day we see her growing and coming into her own little personality.  Most days my body does wish she could be a little more free physically since lifting her is a lot more difficult than it used to be...but for now I will treasure how much she loves to be lifted and held and snuggled and cuddled.  She usually prefers to do this with Daddy more than anyone else, but she doles out the love pretty freely.

We had a little birthday celebration to commemorate Emma's Free-dom, in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style.  She was looking forward to it for such a long time, and she has been such a good girl watching me make these little decorations with Mickey Mouses (Mickey Mice?) all over them (more on that on the next post).  I only had to tell her a few times not to touch them because they were for her party.  And then she went on her merry way to find some other forbidden fruit.

Here are some pictures of birthday number Free!

Birthday morning and her new Minnie Mouse chair

Minnie Mouse dress and ears from Mommy and Daddy:

My sister gave her tons of Doc McStuffins toys that she LOVED:

Aunt Kathey and Emma:

Emma had SUCH fun on the playground!

Sweet Elsie thoroughly enjoyed the grass and the sidewalks and had zero interest in the actual playground.

For some reason, Emma decided that when we sing Happy Birthday to her, it's the equivalent of a prayer...she did it once when we "practiced" and again for the real thing.  She literally bows her head and clasps her hands through the whole song.  What I love about this first picture is that Mason, who is 5 and definitely has the Happy Birthday song down pat, is looking a little confused.  "Am I supposed to be praying here?  I've never prayed through the birthday song before...???"

Happy Fird Birfday to our sweet, sweet baby.  I can't believe we've made it this far.