Three years old!

On August 12th Catherine turns three. I can't wait for her to wake up in the morning and find out it is her birthday. At this point I don't know who will be more excited, Catherine or Ella. I was baking a cake tonight for her birthday dinner tomorrow and both girls caught a wiff of it and came to the kitchen to investigate. Catherine kept saying, "what's that smell? cake?" pointing to the oven. I played dumb with her and she gave up but Ella persisted on bugging me until I told her what it was for and she was so wired and excited that she had a hard time going to sleep!

Catherine. My baby. I cannot believe she is three. She is such a precious gift to me. Here are some random things about Catherine that make me fall in love with her more every day.


Catherine is so low key and laid back and she makes life so easy.

She is all sweetness and love. Hugs and kisses all day long.

She is so sensitive and does not like it one bit when we have to raise our voices with her. She'll cry and say "don't yell at me ever again".

Catherine can be very timid or very outgoing - it really depends on her comfort level.

She has the best and most contagious laugh. When she gets going, it's inevitable that Ella and I will start laughing as well.

She loves slapstick humor. Someone falling or getting bonked on the head just cracks her up (usually cartoon characters, not real life people getting hurt).
She gets scared very easily in movies (just like her sister) and her arch nemesis is the Chick Fil A cow (like her sister).

She is scared of heights. Sometimes she'll forget at a a playground, but if she is aware that she's up high, she'll be holding on for dear life.

She loves ballet and dance. She is doing worship dance this year with Renee and is always asking when ballet class is. I guarantee a great video with her in it this year. She is the youngest and the shortest and just so darn cute up there.
She loves playing with her babies. Her voice is so sweet and she often whispers that we all need to be quiet because her babies are sleeping.

She loves to tell us how silly we are. All throughout the day she tells us "you're so silly." I'm really not that silly.
She loves to dress up and loves wearing my shoes. I was wearing a pair of wedges the other day and she so badly wanted to put them on because she wanted to make that "clomp clomp noise".

She does not like to have her hair brushed - which should be obvious throughout the pictures. But she loves her long hair and loves to push it behind her shoulders and shake it out.


She is still a very picky eater. Peanut butter and jelly is her all time favorite food. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal and she said "peanut butter and jelly"! I convinced her to go with chicken and french fries instead.

She loves to cuddle. Today I was trying to get her to come outside with me but she said "no, I'm sleeping with daddy." I admit I was a bit jealous of him!

She is a peacemaker. If she has a toy that Ella really wants and Ella is getting upset (pretty typicaly scenario) I'll tell her that we have to take turns and give her a time limit for sharing. Almost always, she turns it over to her sister, gladly, before I have to make her. She has such a beautiful generous spirit about her and I hope to continue to nurture that.

She is tough. She'll fall and clearly hurt herself and bounce back very quickly.

She loves to read. She'll sit quietly and flip through books for a long time. She even likes to get my books and flip through them (sigh...after her mother's heart). Recently she's shown a lot of interest in the atlas and will "read" that in the car.

She adores her sister and loves to play with her. Ella and Catherine are so different yet they fit so well together and are always teaching each other. Catherine starts preschool this fall and I am so glad that they will get to go into school side by side - I imagine I might be just a tad bit emotional watching that!

Well I'm going to have to wrap this post up because Matt just told me he saw a mouse run across the dining room floor and I have lost all ability to concentrate!

Happy Birthday Catherine - it's been a wonderful three years getting to know you and watch you grow!