While you are still 3

Addi Boo, 

I took these pictures today while you are still three. There is so much about you I wish to bottle up and keep forever yet I don't want you to stop growing because I find that with each new stage there is more still that I love, and if I were to keep you just this way imagine all things things I would miss.

I hope to remember the way you were fascinated with everything around you. Getting you to look at a camera was almost impossible because you were far to interested in the pinecones.

and the rocks

and the birds

and the ducks.

I hope I always remember that goofy grin you had whenever you actually did stop to say "cheese." 

Unless it was dad you were smiling at, he always gets the real smiles. 

I hope I remember the way you sing "twinkle twinkle little star" and always throw a little "ABC's" in the middle, and the feeling of your little arms wrapped tightly around my neck.  The way you say "I can't wike dat!" every time you see a vegetable on your plate and the way you hum while skipping around the house.  I'd like to bottle up the way you smile with your whole body, nodding your head and clapping your hands whenever something makes you happy and the perfect way your body still folds up into a little ball and fits right into my lap.  

You have stretched my mothering abilities, you have made me better. We didn't see the inside of one hospital or insta-care together this year (at least not for your behalf) which is such a huge improvement from the two prior. You are a fighter, and a lover too but I am always so taken back by the amount of fight you possess in that little 30 lb. body. You are always proving that you really can do anything you set your mind to. I have said it many times but I say it again, you are your own person. You do things in your own way at your own time. You still refuse to name colors but you speak spanish along with Dora, and ask dad to put you "arriba and abajo"  (up and down) when he is flying you on his legs. As we are navigating the world of therapies and pre-schools I am trying my very hardest to listen to my mommy instincts and do what is best for you. In a world where schools want everyone to be the same there is so much about you I hope never changes. 

Tomorrow you will be four, and so today I will try to bottle up the 3-year-old you that I love so dearly and then I will watch with anticipation for all of the joy your 4-year-old self will bring.

All my love baby girl,

mom