More Pretty Princesses Than You Can Shake a Scepter At

Well, our toddler is now officially 3, which explains everything. Three-year-olds are mini-adults -- they know everything and they know nothing, they relish in their Bossy McBossy-ness and they vacillate between being a super help and a super hindrance. Brigid enjoyed her birthday, which began on the actual day, March 12, with a balloon bouquet to greet her in the morning. She wore her Baby Gap birthday girl tee shirt and birthday cake pants to school and really enjoyed being the center of attention. She was very cute, telling everyone she was three on her birthday. I made cupcakes that said Birthday Princess on them and she and her friends at school got to have them at snack time. When she returned home, she found three pink roses waiting for her with a card, Happy Brithday Brigid, from Your Secret Pal, another tradition mysteriously being upheld. Whoever this Secret Pal is, it's costing her or him big bucks by the time all three have collected over the years.

At dinner, she opened presents from us and I made her a brownie cake. The girls gave her DVDs -- "Kung Fu Panda" (don't ask) and "Robots," both of which she has seen and enjoyed. I also got her a DVD version of "Babe," because the video tape version we have is bad. And, we gave her a pretty princess dress that is actually a real dress she can wear for Easter, if it lasts that long. Easter dresses are less expensive than play dress-up princess dresses. Go figure. After a round of "Happy Birthday to You," Daddy had to go back to work, but Brigid went to bed with a smile on her face because she was now three (although when you ask her, "How old are you?" she'll still say "Two." Old habits are hard to break.)

We had Grandma and Granddad Downs and the Godparents, Auntie Shell and Uncle John, over for dinner and presents on Saturday. Michelle's boys, Josh and Jacob, were also in attendance, which as great because they -- especially Jacob -- played with Brigid all night, much to her delight. She loves Josh and Jacob. And Jacob has a real affinity for Brigid. Auntie Shell gave Brigid a very cute Fisher Price baby doll and equipment set, with a stroller, a baby swing and bassinet. Note to Michelle: If you ever again give Brigid anything in miniature that takes longer to put together than it's real-life-size counterpart, you'll be over putting it together yourself. In the end, with bloody digits bandaged and equipment cleaned, the play set was very cute and much loved. Uncle John gave Brigid (read: All of us) a gift card to the movies. Being three and a non-licensed passenger in the car, I'm afraid any movie she takes in will have to be with the rest of us. Oh, well, another case of the whole benefiting from the one. Grandma and Granddad gave our pretty princess plenty of pretty princess dress-up clothes. She is all set for any ball that may come her way. One of the "hightlights" of the night was cutting into the Princess Cake, at least it was for me.

Today is St. Patrick's day, and it's unfortunate that any of the Disney princesses didn't hail from the Emerald Isle because then she'd have been able to wear a green princess dress. As it is, she went to school this morning wearing a green velvet holiday dress. I may have said before in this blog that I've decided if she wants to wear her "special occasion" dresses, she can. I have too many memories of dresses that Margaret and Patricia wore once because I was going to "save them for special occasions," only to have them outgrown before those occasions came around again. So, she'll go to school in velvet and taffeta any time she wants as long as she's already worn the thing at least once before.