Happy birthday, L!

Do you know I actually googled "toddler" recently, to determine whether referring to L as a toddler was correct anymore?  Turns out, toddlers are no longer so at age 3.  Whoops.  I've been calling her a toddler for the past year.

But as we celebrated L's 4th birthday yesterday, I realized we most certainly have a little girl on our hands.

Where did the last year go?  She has grown so much in the last year, both physically and developmentally.  She continues to be stubborn feisty.  She yells "I" when she wants to do things herself, which is almost everything (even when it's completely unrealistic).

For the stats - she is 37 pounds, and 40 inches tall.  She has grown tremendously since her surgery in November.  We think that surgery must've allowed her body to start absorbing nutrients better.  Either way, she's growing like a weed.

We had been talking about her birthday for the past couple weeks.  So when she woke up to see balloons in her room, she immediately attempted to say birthday with a ginormous smile and equally ginormous bedhead.  Then she asked to blow out candles.

We took her to see her first movie in the theater yesterday - Planes: Fire & Rescue.  She stood most of the time, and stuffed her face with popcorn.  But she did pretty well and liked it.

Then we came home and she had some playtime in her new sandbox.  It was our gift to her and she absolutely loves it.  It's created a lot of independent play and keeps her occupied for hours.  I think I love it just as much as she does.

Speaking of eating, we celebrated her birthday by making her favorite food last night - grilled shrimp.  She ate shrimp and nothing else for dinner.  L is now on a egg-free and dairy-free diet due to allergies.  I made her a vegan birthday cake that was delicious and super easy.

The day left us all with smiles on our faces.  Feeling blessed to be starting another year with our girl.