Three and a HALF!

Maura turned three and a half on Friday, September 11th! Happy half birthday big girl! I happen to think that half birthdays are important to kids because it's just so LOOOOONG between birthdays for a child. Maura has been looking forward to her half birthday because she says she's "almost to four." My big girl is looking less like a baby every day and more like the big girl that she is. At three and a half, she can definitely undress herself and can mostly dress herself, although she likes to pretend that she's incapable! She heads to the potty on her own at home, but kind of hangs out there after she's done and waits for assistance. She loves to color and can draw some pretty great pictures of people, complete with eyelashes and fingers. She knows all her letters and most of her numbers and she can write her name pretty well. She's starting to recognize and read very short words (hi, no, stop, etc...) She has a wonderful imagination and pretends to be a cat, butterfly, kangaroo and dinosaur much of the time. She's still napping occasionally, usually about 2-3 times a week but those days she does have a hard time getting to sleep that night. She's definitely my introvert. She loves talking about her friends, but still isn't sure how to play with other kids. I think she'll get better at that soon, because she starts SCHOOL this week! We're so excited about school and Maura can't wait to learn new things!
Her half birthday celebration had to wait a day and we celebrated on Saturday with my family. The cake was re-purposed from Katie's shower the night before, but Maura didn't mind! Maura was so excited to celebrate. We had attended another friend's birthday party earlier in the day and Maura was in a celebratory moon. Tristan...not so much!

Maura's half birthday present was a ball that she'd coveted at a sporting goods store. Blowing out those three candles.

In case you're wondering, we didn't all gather just to celebrate Maura's half birthday. It was Lorie's real birthday. I hope we didn't overshadow her day with our celebration! Happy Birthday Aunt Lorie! It was her thirtieth birthday! What a milestone!!