Aeryn's 3rd Birthday - Jan 14, 2012

Aeryn's birthday was on Saturday. She started the day by walking into the kitchen and discovering a child-size kitchen of her own. Since her friend has the same one, she told me, "Kai's kitchen is in there!" and was pretty happy to discover that it was hers. It has lots of things that beep, buzz and boil and even has a light over the stove, so she loves it and has been playing with it every day! Later in the morning, she opened a few presents - a "Percy" train from Brian and Vivian, and "Emily" train from Marti and Jason. They are part of the "Thomas the Tank Engine" story and she was thrilled to have them to play with. That was the end of opening presents that day - she wasn't interested in other things because she just wanted to play with her new trains.

Before it got too hot, Aeryn, Tom, Brian, Vivian and I went for a hike up the HECO tower hill. Tom decided to be Tarzan and climb a root/vine and of course Aeryn took after him and started climbing too. She's pretty good at climbing and has no fear. She wasn't far from the ground, but Tom couldn't come down until she did!

We then all went to Pyramid Rock for some beach time. Tom and Brian were pretty excited about the big waves that were there that day. Vivian tried a boogie board but really just wanted to get in the ocean. Aeryn did her usual climbing on rocks and making sand angels, etc.

Early Sunday morning, she opened another present from Marti and Jason - and it was a train track plus another train in the same "Thomas" series - so then she could run the trains around on a track - wow! She opened a few more presents, and then we headed off to the Coptic church. Aeryn got to wear the beautiful dress that had been given to her by Father Zocima, the priest who baptized her in May. It is really special and she looked like a princess. She is the little darling of the local Coptic church - the only little girl - and we were shocked to see that many of the people there had brought presents for her, too. We took in a cake for the brunch they have after church, and the cake had a princess crown and wand on it, so Aeryn was wearing those before too long. Once home again and after a nap she managed to open more presents - princess tutu pj's and matching doll pj's plus a tutu doll from Jason's parents. So cute! It took several more days to open what she had brought home from church! At this point (a week after her birthday), we still haven't given her the presents we bought other than the kitchen set because she is still overwhelmed. It will be nice to bring them out a little at a time.

On Wednesday, our regular playgroup day, we did a birthday party for Aeryn's friends, although we were missing a few people. It was fun and we had cupcakes and ice cream and pizza. She had so much fun being the center of attention and having all this excitement going on. We love how much she appreciates each and every gift.

Now that she is 3, life has changed! She told me today that she can reach the sink without a step stool - "I can do it now. I am 3!" A few days ago when she was tired she said, "I don't want to be 3 - I am still 2!" Oh well - can't stop time, can we?