Growing Up

My little Whitney is turning 3 on Saturday and I can't hardly believe it! Where does the time go? Craziness. The other day I asked Whitney if she would stop growing up so fast and this was her reply:

"Mom, I can't because my heart is on the opposite side and it makes me strong and special and it makes me get big." {As she pointed to her heart.. on the opposite side.}

So cute. I love these tender moments with her. She was born with a condition called Situs Inversus. She has no side affects and is perfect and healthy, but we just like to remind her of how special she is.

Today we laid on Whit's bed and played "pretend." She loves to imagine. Her bed turned into a magic flying carpet. She flew us to the beach-we built a sand castle, we went down a water slide at the pool and waved to dad as we flew away (he was catching the chickens she said.) We even reached off of the "magic carpet" to touch the clouds. Sometimes on our "flying trips" we have to fight off a mean dragon.. that eventually turns nice or there is a scary crocodile that is right below us.

Other times she likes to pretend that she is a dog. She will crawl around the house begging for food. She does a trick, I feed her a treat. I will pick her up and hold her... scratch her ears... rub her belly.

And her night-time stories.. the best! Always filled with stories of Whitney the princess and her entourage of friends.. Tinker Bell, Rapunzel, Toy Story characters... they are our frequent guests. Usually we are rescuing someone from either a mean witch, huge octupus, or a big dragon. Whitney, the nicest princess of all, of course, has super powers. She can stretch really far (like Mrs. Incredible) and always rescues whomever is in danger. I mentioned a couple of nights ago that maybe we should ride the horses (Mo and Muffins) into the woods. I told her she could ride Mo and I would ride Muffins. Her response: "No, I want to ride Muffins. Mo is too fat and slow." ;) After every story she ALWAYS says: "That was a great story."

So every night we tell story after story and it never gets old. I don't want to ever forget these little moments we get with her. In 10 years from now when she is a teenager, I'm not going to be able to kiss her or Hank a million times a day or lay with them until they fall asleep. But so it is, inevitable.. growing up. I just wish it didn't have to happen so dang fast!

Hanks new thing is his teddy bear. He likes to hold it and play with it until he falls asleep. And he LOVES to sleep with it on his face. :)

She totally fell asleep like this.