My daughter celebrated her third birthday last weekend.  We had a very small family gathering at my place, with all the expected trimmings.  She got some really great gifts and a fine time was had.

I had four days off in a row this weekend, so she and I got some really focused face-time.  We played with her tiny new tea set for literally hours, making sure every animal in her menagerie got a cupful.  She got the ritual down right away, pouring the tea, putting in the sugar cubes (complete with sound effect: “plink!”) and then some cream, every time, in order.  I wonder if I have a little OCD toddler on my hands.

We also spent quite a lot of time using her new Play-Doh Fun Factory and dry-erase board.  She made me open up “Chutes & Ladders,” but she’s not quite ready to sit down for a board game yet, it seems.

We got our first snow this weekend.  I bundled up my daughter and we took a stroll in the brisk flurries.  I lured her back to the house with promises of hot cocoa by a real fire in the fireplace, which I delivered.  We threw some pillows on the floor and had a cozy little time together.

Because her birthday is right on the cusp of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season, it’s very important to me to keep her birthday clearly defined as its own event.  The birthday streamers and balloons stayed up until December 1, at which time we then began decorating for Christmas.

That was a fun day.  My daughter helped me move all extraneous toys out of the living room and into her room, and I set up our pre-lighted artificial tree in the nook near the fireplace.  She couldn’t wait to decorate it.  She started by decorating her own little miniature tree, though – a great idea I picked up from the Kid Tips column in the Telegraph last year.  Nana brought over some singing chipmunks (sentences I never thought I’d type #412), which enthralled my toddler to no end.  Nana even fixed our fireplace mantle, so we can decorate that.

It’s been a sweet long weekend all around – and a perfect way to usher in the holiday season.

 
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