Happy Birthday Jessi!

Ok, so I'm a few days late, but I do want to talk about Jessi's birthday. It seems like she's been 3 forever, but now that she's 4, it's hard to believe.

I was induced at 41 weeks, and Jessi was born in less than 3 hours, in fact, Jeff almost missed it! She was a funny little thing, very red and had a head full of dark hair.

She's been a daddy's girl from the start and he was pretty taken with her as well.

Her hair lightened, her eyes grew impossibly blue, and the spunk that was evident early on developed into a full-blown force of nature.

Here she is at her first birthday... smashing her cake with a spoon.

If I were to try and describe Jessi in three words, I would have to choose "imagination", "spunk", and "sweetness". She is full of ideas and imaginations, I never know from one minute to the next if she is a Princess, a puppy, or an astronaut. She is such a little mommy (too much so at times!) and at the same time such a tough little nut. She's a Tee-ball slugger and a ballerina. I think Joey is my warm-up, Jessi is my real challenge, and Joyana is my breather. These pictures are all from the last few days.

Joey got her a Tutu for Christmas and she's been wanting "Real" ballet shoes ever since. I tried to explain that if she were a flower fairy, she could just dance lightly on her toes with no shoes on... in one of those inexplicable logics of childhood, she tried it and informed me that she DID need real shoes because she can't get onto the flowers without smashing them.

On birthday-eve, she went on a date with daddy to the store to get her real ballet shoes and then out for Wendy's. When she came home, there was nothing that could stop her suiting up in full prima dona regaila to see how well she could dance... unfortunately, it had been a long day and she fell sound asleep....

I did take the slippers off but let her sleep in the rest of her outfit. She must have forgotten by the next morning because she was THRILLED to wake up in her ballet clothes with her new dance slippers tucked in beside her. I couldn't have planned it any better if I had tried.

I love the literal-ness that she takes things with... she is quite convinced that she is much bigger now, and I'm able to use that to my advantage--"Oh four year old girls do like their veggies, see?" "Oh, four year old girls don't do that!"

Happy Birthday Jessica Marie!