THREE!

Today, my sweet Maddie James turned three. THREE! I can't believe it.

(Today, also, my sweet husband had three surgical procedures done in his nose and sinus area, so we celebrated Madelyn's birthday yesterday.)

All she wanted was to invite a few neighbors over and to offer them cake and ice cream and--her favorite--candy canes. So that's exactly what we did.

Simple set-up:

Store-bought cake (as I was not about to try to produce the much-desired "Dora Fairy Princess" cake). Miraculously, Publix has no problem with this task. As it turned out, this cake was pretty darn tasty.

We did save a few birthday traditions for the "real" day. Madelyn got to use the red "You Are Special Today" plate all day with the birthday train, of course. She spent most of the day with Meme and Kiki and her sisters playing with her new toys, while the Gutsy Dad and I hung out at the hospital.

Time (like an ever-rolling stream) certainly has born these three years away rather swiftly. The magical birth experience we had in Germany seems like it occurred just the other day, and yet it feels like something out of ancient history, a different world, a completely different era as well. But it just happened. The crazy paradox of time in a mother's memory.

Sigh.

Three years ago today in Germany, our little hedgehog was born:

Two years ago today in Kansas, she turned one:

One year ago today in Kansas, she turned two:

And now, oh my word, she is THREE.