Aspen's birthday post (better late than never!)

 

It's only almost 4 months late. Oh well.

On April 18th my little Aspen May turned 4! This girl loves rainbows so I thought we'd do a family party with a rainbow theme. 

 

 

 



 Cousin Catherine and Jade taking a swing at the piñata. 

 

Not surprisingly, Toby caused the explosion of candy.

Somehow Grandma knew I was having a rainbow themed party and bought cheer bear (the care bear with a rainbow) for Aspen.

 

Not only does she like rainbows, but she is equally obsessed with My Little Pony, temples (I need to get her own temple calendar) animals and dinosaurs.

 

Here she is with Rainbow Dash and a few African animals that were super cheap at Wal-Mart. 



 

Rainbow cupcakes

 



 

 And rainbow ice cream (playdough ice cream)

 

Like most girls her age, she does enjoy being a princess every once in a while.  So we got her a Cinderella dress.



 

Aaaand a princess bike. It was love at first sight.

 

If you can't tell in the pictures, Aspen is really tall! She has grown a lot this past year -- physically and with her speech.  I was reading through last years post and remembering how I could barely get her to even say just a few words (and understand those words). Such a difficult and frustrating time for both of us. I'm happy to report that after another year of speech therapy and a lot of work at home, she's saying complete sentences and saying words a lot more clearly. She still struggles with omitting words from her sentences and some words still are hard to decipher...BUT she has improved immensely! Her doctor says give her another year and she thinks Aspen will be close to - if not already sounding like - most kids her age. My heart goes out to my little girl though.  I get a little worried about her starting preschool and the possibility of getting made fun of because of her delay.  Those things are hard on us mommies. 

 

A few more things about Aspen: she is a great eater! Sometimes I forget to let her try new things because I am so used to Toby giving me his barfing gesture when I'm eating Thai food or sushi (or even delicious homemade chicken pot pie. Crazy guy). Also she loves, LOVES The Lion King. It's like what Frozen is to most girls her age.  And I kind of like that she's in the 1 percentile there.

Other favorite things: books, practicing letters numbers and coloring and painting.  All new things for me as I'm used to my high-energy, needs constant physical stimulation Toby-man. I've really loved having a girl.  I can already tell we are going to be good friends through the years. She's my little sweetheart and I'm so grateful she is apart of our family.