It's been three years to the day since Emily entered our lives as a screaming, placenta covered newborn.
She's still at the age where events like Christmas, birthdays, etc. mean more to the adults around her than to her, but I guess it's the repetition and instilling into her that they are special times that makes them meaningful.
As a special birthday present to Sue and I, Emily decided to leave a number of brown presents in her bath... again. She was rewarded with a prison hose-down which she did not enjoy. Talk about being pampered on your birthday!
Overall, I think birthdays allow us to reflect on the past year or life to date and it's easier at three than say.. 38 to do, as you haven't done as much.
Emily's short life has been filled with a lot of travel, parents who have had to bring up baby with no real local support network and in all this, she's had to deal (rather obliviously) with a learning delay.
Birthdays for kids also brings out those "what you should be doing at this age" checklists, and I'm quite proud to say that Emily's doing almost everything she should be doing at two years old!
If she's only a year behind, that's not too bad and in the past 12 months she's really really developed so here's hoping that in the next year that gap narrows even more.
We have to now open a bunch of cards and presents for Emily that she may or may not be aware are for her.
Come the weekend, we do it all over again, but with a bouncy castle.
