Happy birthday, dear girl!

My adorable girl is 3. Three!! How did that happen??

She stunned me tonight when, on the way home from school, she piped up from the back seat: "Mommy, can you tell me a RABBI story?"

I tried to cheat by telling her the story of Fiddler on the Roof, but when I asked her if the rabbi had sons or daughters, she said, "no daughters, only sons." So, I was stuck. She kept at it throughout the night until she finally, out of exasperation, asked for a polar bear story. Which I made up -- it was exceptionally lame. Oh, for the days when I could impress her with a song!!

The day started with both Drew and I leaning over her crib and singing, "Happy birthday" while she playfully thrashed around, looking a little like the girl from the "Exorcist" movies. She calmed down after Drew sat her down for breakfast, and when she visited me in my closet as I was getting dressed she said, "Your skirt and your shirt go well with your shoes." When I came in wearing an all-white outfit from my newly discovered pre-pregnancy clothing stash, she said, "I like your outfit."

"You look BEAUTIFUL," she sighed as I headed out. Ah, my little admirer!

I picked her up from school and she was wearing a cute paper crown on her head. (Unfortunately she was so excited to see me that she banged her knee, the one that was in the cast, into mine as she ran into me, and I had to hold her in my lap to calm her down.) We dashed to the mall and then to Fred Meyer to pick her up a pair of crocs, which are Pepto Bismol pink and I really don't like, but she loves them and they're a good alternative to sandals. Then home to open presents: THANK YOU Mom and Dad for the gorgeous clothing, which Rachel really liked -- especially the pink polka dot shirt.

"We'll call Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow and thank them for the gift," I said firmly.

"Yes," Rachel echoed. "And this time, I'm going to talk to them."

(That exchange was the result of her being quite rude Sunday when Mom and Dad called to wish Rachel a happy birthday and she refused to talk to them, and so Drew had a firm talk with her that when people call, it's polite to put down whatever you're doing and talk to them. Hopefully she got the message; Richard thinks she did).

Then we opened Tia Daniella's gift -- a cute green bikini -- which Rachel liked, but what really transfixed her was the Curious George coloring card that came with the gift. She proceeded to color for quite a while as I fixed dinner.

Our tenants, Brenna and Craig, kindly bought Rachel a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" coloring book with stickers, which she barely thanked them for before putting the stickers on herself and offering several to me.

Then it was off to bed, with a bit of whining about the missing binkies and wailing when she realized we had forgotten to have watermelon ("I'm thinking we should have watermelon after dinner," she had cheerfully declared, and made a point of finishing all her chicken and a bunch of Gouda cheese in anticipation). I promised her we'd have extra tomorrow night, but she didn't feel mollified until I threatened not to tell her a story if she didn't stop fussing. She got an extra story out of me because I felt kind of bad about the watermelon.

But she got to bed early for her -- around 9:10 p.m. Which is good because I have a bunch of stuff I need to catch up on, including writing her my annual "Happy Birthday" card that tells her about what stage of development she's in and how much I love her. I hope to give her a pile of these cards when she had children of her own.