Though She Be But Little, She is Fierce!

So my second little darling just turned 3 today.  I guess it's normal for a mother's thoughts to turn to the birth experience on the anniversary of her child's birth.  With the plethora of videos all over Facebook right now showing a couple of men going through a simulated birth experience, I automatically thought of my own not simulated birth experience. I couldn't help but feel sorry for them.  While it was funny (to women) there was always this thought for me that these poor guys are experiencing all of this pain but they don't get the joy at the end.

Don't get me wrong; my daughter is a pain in the butt a lot of the time. She's loud.  She goes through about 10 pairs of pants per day.  She has no respect for the starving children in Africa because there is constantly a  pile of food under her chair at the table and in her car seat.  She constantly loses her Blankie and Pink Kitty and Pacie and she REFUSES to go to sleep without them.  She still doesn't sleep through the night all the time.  She is very curious and tactile so taking her to the grocery store is an adventure in "look with your eyes not your hands!"  Things get broken around her an awful lot.  Magically.  It's always an accident.  The poor dog is going to get a complex if she doesn't stop trying to poke its eyes just to see what happens.  All of her friends her age are boys and she seems to make them cry every time they play together.

With all that said, she is a great joy to me.  She says or does something heartbreakingly cute every single day.  She went to school in the backyard yesterday with one of Conner's old backpacks.  Apparently her school only lasts two minutes and she got a "green day."  She goes through her day singing.  It's usually the wrong words but it's cuter that way.  She's an awesome mix of girly-girl and tomboy   She wants me to call her Cinderella while she plays with her brother's Iron Man toy in the mud.  She's stubborn and opinionated.  Even though that can be a source of great annoyance to me there's a part of me that kind of loves it.  Kalen won't ever be called a pushover.  Peer pressure?  Kalen is the peer that puts on the pressure.  Kalen wants to know how everything works.  Sometimes I think that's so she knows how to break it more efficiently but that's neither here nor there.  She has Daddy wrapped around her little finger.  She knows the exact cute look that just melts his heart.  I love that she's smart enough to know when to use it and not to use it too often or it loses impact.  She has funny little names and sayings for things.  It's not "I don't want that" it's "I can't want it." Cupcakes are shortcakes.  She disciplines herself.  She was LOSING HER MIND in the back seat of the car one day because of some disappointment or other and was just inconsolable.  She smacked herself across the face and calmed down.  Weirdest thing ever.

When I was going through childbirth for my daughter 3 years ago today, I had a baby and all this joy to look forward to. It was pain with purpose.  Happy birthday, my sweet girl.