Lainey Turns Four

Tonight, just as we're putting her to bed and she's drifting off to La-La Land, Lainey will be turning four.  She thinks she's four already, since I proclaimed Happy Birthday! to her this morning whilst she still lay in bed, but I don't have it in me today to explain to her her birth and answer the why? why? why? that leads to a much bigger discussion than the simple fact that she was born at 7:53pm on a Saturday night four years ago. 

I can hardly remember what it was like to have her as a newborn, to have her and only her all to myself.  Life has a way of pushing it all aside to make room for new memories.  For growing and stretching and becoming.  It's a good thing we have those things called cameras.  Without them, I'm sure I would wake up one day 30 years from now and ask where my babies went.  What kind of cruel life is this; my babies were just here, they were this high, then they were stolen from me?!  It's hardly fair, and it pains me to think about how much she will change (and grow and learn) in the next four years.

At the moment, she loves painting (some things never change), playing in the water in the bathroom or kitchen sinks, taking baths, singing/dancing/performing, coloring, going for a walk from front door to back door around the house by herself (which totally puts me on high alert, frantically looking out every window so she's not snatched from me, or just preparing for kindergarten - nooo!!!), and watching Kim Possible or Totally Spies on the computer (after which she acts like a teenager or like a spy).  Four-going-on-fourteen is more like it, but thank God she is still her happy-go-lucky, I-just-want-everyone-to-be-happy self.  Which brings me to my next point: she (usually) plays well with Marin, but is doing so less and less.  Of course, Marin likes to be with me at all times, so by default, she is usually with me and not with Lainey.  They are just at two different stages at the moment (were they not born close enough?!).

In conclusion, I am not sending my baby to school.  Ever.

Happy 4 years, Lainey!

Here are a few photos snapped from today.  We are just celebrating with our little family tonight.  I was going to make a chocolate chunk orange bundt cake, but Lainey said she wanted a pink lemonade cake, so that is what I made.  I used Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Cake recipe.  We made it this morning, and surprisingly, the girls stayed in the kitchen for the whole thing, through the lemon zesting and squeezing and all.  When Jason got home, we had pizza, cake, and then she opened her present from us: Lalaloopsy, which she has been talking about for a long time.