Palmer's 3rd Birthday: Pool Party

This year, we decided to have a little pool party for Palmer and all her friends. What good is it to have a birthday in August if you can't have a pool party?? :-) Palmer enjoyed bouncing around and playing in the wading pool with all her buds. We had a picnic lunch and cake in the park afterwards. She said that her favorite part was the rainbow cookie cake. :-)

Palmer's 3rd Birthday!

Although Palmer's real birthday isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated today with a family party. Our a/c is on the fritz so we decided to BBQ at the lake. It started out nice and cool thanks to an early-morning storm and just started really heating up when we were leaving. Perfect! 

Although she went back and forth for weeks, Palmer ultimately requested a rainbow cake. It was a labor of love as I ended up baking and frosting her 6-layer cake with the thermostat registering at 90 degrees inside our house yesterday (ac is broken). Hello, hotness! 

Grammy, Granpy, Aunt Mo, Great Grandma Pat, Grandma P and Grandpa P came to help celebrate our special girl. 

Daddy brought some water balloons and naturally...Link, Palmy and Mo thought that I was the best target! :-)

I asked Palmer what her favorite part of the day was. She said that it was blowing out her birthday candle. 

As I reflect on her first three years of life, I marvel as how much her personality has changed. She is a firecracker with a sweet spirit. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to voice it. But she is also quite agreeable, flexible and laid back. The littlest things excite and make her happy.  She is independent, always wanting to pick out her outfits, put clothes on by herself and tell me how to do her hair (she prefers to have it braided every day!). :-)  She loves playing with her big sister...whether it's dress up, role-playing "mom and baby", or endless hours playing with their "little people". 

We love this little soul with all our hearts. Happy 3rd birthday, sweet Palmer!

Palmer Turns 2!

Wow, what a fun day we had celebrating my precious baby's 2nd birthday! All of Palmer's favorites were there. Both sets of grandparents, our special friend Jing, Uncle Tim & Aunt Rach and of course, Aunt MoMo. 

Palmer woke up to a room full of balloons and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  We did a loosely-themed-bubble party. She got a bubble machine for her birthday and that was a hit. Uncle Tim made home-made Korean Pho. Yum yum! Everybody loved it. My tummy so happy. I made Palmer's cake and I have to admit that it sure was delish. 

Palmer was given such special and thoughtful gifts by everyone that came. Linkan even got some gifts. What's up with that?!? ;-) (Linkan has been taking the adorable Pony from Jing with her EVERYwhere.) Molly took Grampy's stepstool (it was his as a child), painted it and wrote her name on it. Too cute. The highlight of the day was unveiling the baby cradle that was refurbished and given to Palmer. Grampy fixed up the vintage find, Gramy painted it and our friend Rhonda made a special quilt and bedding to match. So much love put into that special gift for her. Palmer plays with it nearly every day. She also got THE most adorable monkey apron, handmade by Grandma P. She walks around with her apron and monkey bag (also made by Grandma P) like she is hot stuff. 

Palmer had a wonderful day. Quite a contrast from her first birthday (a little overwhelmed!). I love the little person that she is now and is becoming. She is Ben's personality inside my body...so it's easy for me to understand and love her. She makes you work for smiles if you are new to her but once you're in the fold, you're golden. She is feisty. I won't have to worry about whether she will be able to stand up for herself. No doubt. She is an observer. She studies things and is cautious...but once she makes up her mind, she is fearless. Her speech is above the cut. She talks and enunciates so well that I regularly get comments when we are out in public. She loves playing with babies. She loves to ask questions. She loves making us crack up. Recently, she has started telling me randomly through out the day, "I love my daddy." She loves her big sister. 80% of the time, they play well together. Linkan makes up a pretend world and she will

play and go right along with it. The other 20% of the time involves not sharing and shrieking. Haha

At her 2 year check up, she was 7%tile in weight (that is up from the last visit!) and 29% in height. She has grown 2 inches in 6 months! 

She is a blessing, an absolute gem and I love her so.

Grammie's 61st Birthday

We spent the night in Emporia to celebrate mom's 61st birthday. I thought Molly was pretty clever with the cake topping. 6 candles and a "1". :) Good times!

My one year old!

Palmer turned one year old today! It's crazy to think about what we were doing on this day one year ago. I re-read her birth story and I couldn't help but think - again - how amazing that day was.

Oh, what stories we will tell little monkey about her first year of life! Palmer is so different than Linkan - it's been fun to see how their little personalities are unique from each other. She is little miss independent. She wants to do everything on her own...put on her shoes, use a fork and a spoon, walk (although she hasn't totally mastered that yet). She almost completely refuses to eat baby food anymore. I have to distract her by giving her another spoon to try to feed herself while I shovel cereal or yogurt in the hatch...before she notices that I've tricked her. :) She knows some sign language and uses it well. She is a little confused...as she uses the sign for "more" when she wants something. But we know what she means and give it to her so I guess she has us trained!

Palmer is an observer. She studies things and people. She has to have time to take you in before she decides if you are ok. If you are a stranger, you will have to work hard for her smiles...unless you are a girl under the age of 11 and then she INSTANTLY loves you. I'm learning that she wants me to hold her a lot so that she can be right in the middle of the action AND study (so that she can later mimic) whatever it is that I'm doing.

She loves her Linkan so much. The first thing they do in the morning is excitedly greet each other. It's so sweet. Linkan says, "Good morning baby girl!" She can often put a smile on Palmer's face or make her giggle when no one else can. Palmer LOVES to wrestle and roll around with Link. Linkan is still learning how to share and snatches toys from Palmer constantly. I've been surprised to find that Palmer is no shrinking violet. I don't think we will ever have to worry about our flamboyant Linkan bull-dozing Palmy. She stands her ground. And I try not to laugh...

Palmer can say mama, da ("dad"), hi. She waves hello and goodbye, plays peek-a-boo, does the sounds for a fish-owl-tiger-elephant-dog-money-gorilla. She does this fore-head bump thing that we can "bonk". It's the Post universal language for "I love ya!" She can sign drink, more, eat, and all done. She is 17 pounds and 29 inches long. She only gained 1 pound in the last three months which I was totally surprised by because she eats like a horse! She is 60th percentile in height (same as 9 months) and 5th percentile in weight (was 25th at 9 months). Doc isn't concerned. She doesn't have much hair yet but the growth has picked up very recently! She has 8 teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom and is currently working on two GIGANTIC molars. And they HURT. :( She is cruising really well and crawls faster than the speed of sound. She took a couple of steps on her own today.I'd give her another month or so before she will be stable enough to start walking.

She is our sweet little baby. We love her little personality and her sweet giggles and funny things that she does every day to make us laugh. Our little world would not be the same without her! Happy birthday Palmy, we love you!