Mia's Third Birthday

At the weekend, my little Mia turned three, and I guess I can no longer really refer to her as 'the baby'. She has always been a feisty little thing with a determined temperament, prone to explosive tantrums, and thereby usually managing to get her own way. She bosses Harry about and upsets his games, but she is also very motherly towards him, and she is always there with his treasured cuddly giraffe if he's looking sad.

I've tried to treat them both the same, but although Mia does play with cars and trains, still the only colour that she can reliably recognise is pink, she loves dressing up, and she adores taking care of her dolls. Her life has been well documented on this blog, from my first post about our girly weekend when she was just a few weeks old, to her birth story. Now her hair is longer it's slightly easier to style, but it still usually quickly ends up as an untamed mess!

We celebrated her birthday with a little family party. The weather was nice enough for a barbecue in the garden, and both children loved having their relatives there to play with them. I like to try something different when it comes to making birthday cakes and this time I tried out a new cake tin - a giant cupcake. It worked pretty well, although it did take ages to cook and I think would have been better with a bit more filling. But now I've got the tin I'm planning on trying out lots of different variations, there are some fantastic ones to inspire me on Pinterest. I also made my first ever cheesecake, with a chocolate brownie base which turned out very well (if I do say so myself), and may become a future blog post!

Mia received some lovely presents. Ever since Harry's birthday back in January she has been not-so-patiently awaiting her own present receiving occasion and it didn't disappoint.

I remember Harry turning three with fondness, because it marked the time that he finally started sleeping through the night. Mia has been a little better so far with the sleeping, but it feels as though we still have more disturbed than undisturbed nights.

I'm hoping that three might also mean an end to the tantrums, although experience from others polled on Facebook suggests that this is not going to be the case! I must admit to feeling quite relieved that the toddler days are coming to an end, as I've not found toddler Mia that easy, especially with an older child to look after. But there is a bit of sadness there too as I watch her grow up. I'm sure I'll long for these baby days in the future!