Happy 3rd Birthday Lilly Bean!!!

 Happy Birthday, my Lilly, my Lilly!!  I believed in love at first sight the moment I saw you.  You were a perfect, beautiful, very pensive newborn baby.  I remember how tiny your little hands and feet, how soft your baby skin was, how beautiful your dark blue eyes were just staring up at me like, "Okay, here I am, let's go!"  October 21, 2007 was a gorgeous, beautiful Fall day.  All the colors of the leaves on the trees were at their peak, the sun was shining, the air was perfectly cool, there was no wind, it smelled like bonfire and Fall - the world was made even more beautiful when you (finally) made your arrival that Sunday night.

 Lilly, you won your Daddy over the minute you were born.  What a sucker he is for you still (and always will be, I'm sure).  We took this picture on your first trip to the pumpkin patch right around your 1st birthday in October, 2008. 

 

 October, 2009 Halloween at the Zoo!  Look how big you were already.  I just love those gorgeous blue eyes, those beautiful lips (you get those from Teti and Uncle Dan - lucky girl!) and that cute little nose (Babi!) - everything else is all Daddy!  Except for your sass, you get that from ME!

And here you are now, 3 years old!  Smart, funny, gorgeous - PERFECT.  I just love you to pieces Lilly Bean.  You have brought sheer joy into our lives, every day is a gift with you in it.  I love watching you grow, I love watching you learn, I love watching you just be.   This morning, for the first time, I saw you do something you've never done before.  You played peacekeeper!  So BIG!  Every day a new thing.  This might all sound trite and cliche I don't care.  Everything every Mama has ever said who loved her kids is true.  I am a better person because of YOU Lilly, and I love you more each day than the last and I will love you forever and forever ;) 
Happy Birthday to My Baby,
Mommy