Birthdays past and approaching

L's 4th Birthday cake.

September is a pretty full-on month for us, and about to become even more so.

My precious eldest daughter, L, just turned four and we had the joy of being able to celebrate with her Auckland cousins - all 8 of them. (She has another 11 cousins in other parts of the country/world.)

Happy Birthday darling girl!

L loved her birthday and repeatedly told us, "This is the best day ever!"

I loved having family around for her party, although it was bittersweet not celebrating with our Wellington friends who would usually have been there.

Now my birthday is also imminent.

It's a race to see whether it comes before or after our baby boy is born.

His official due date is the day after my birthday, but I keep hoping he'll sneak in early so I can say I was still 30 when I had him. The idea of that pleases me because I like patterns and good things seem to happen for me on the even years.

Wanna see what I mean?...

Age 20: Met Paul.
Age 24: Married Paul.
Age 26: Gave birth to L.
Age 28: Gave birth to S.
Age 30: Bought (and sold) first house.
Age 30: Had baby boy???? Or will it be...
Age 31: Had baby boy???? It's just not the same having that odd 1 in there.

Anyway, enough of my random patternising. I admit, it's a little bit freakish to think about these things like they actually matter.

Here are a few tidbits about L, so I can look back and remember what she was like at this age.

4-year-old L

• She loves choosing her outfit every day. We call her the stylista in our house, because she's all about the clothes - especially sparkly, frilly, girly ones.
• She draws amazing pictures of girls wearing beautiful dresses, surrounded by butterflies, flowers, blue skies and sunshine. Our freezer is covered in these drawings. I love them all, they are so vibrant.
• L is teaching herself to write, with the odd bit of input from me. I'm amazed at how fast she is learning her letters and how well she retains the knowledge once she has it. She's very motivated to write words, and that has started rubbing off on S who wants to learn her letters too now.
• L bounces, dances and plays on our trampoline with all the joy I remember from my own childhood. We bought the trampoline a couple of weeks ago to give the girls somewhere safe to play outside while I'm occupied with baby boy. Best purchase ever! They spend so much more time outside now and get ten times the exercise they used to.
• L is very kind and generous. She often wants to give away her toys and special things to friends and cousins.
• She is incredibly competitive. "I winned!" She tells me when she makes it to the front door first, or gets into her car seat first, or finishes her dinner first. It's not surprising she has this trait, since both her parents are competitive too. (Especially Paul. Just ask anyone who's ever played a board game or computer game with him. They'll concur.)
• L loves her preschool and has settled in so quickly. She tells me the teachers are kind and great and it's so much fun there.
• She's the first person in our family to go to sleep at night and hence the first person to wake up in the morning. Usually she just gets up without waking us. She grabs an apple from the fruit bowl and puts on a DVD or plays on the iPad until we join her in the land of the living.
• She is a lovely big sister to S, mostly using her words to negotiate with the often unreasonable two-year-old, and warning me if S does something she shouldn't. However, she does also resort to biting S sometimes, and that's something we're trying to work on.
• L tries to be tactful when I make a snack or meal that she doesn't really like. She usually starts off by saying, "Wow, it's delicious!" And then doesn't eat any more. When I ask her why she's not eating it, she admits it's not that yummy.

I love you my L. Thank you for being born darling girl.