Paige is 4!

As hard as it was for me to wrap my head around LC turning 1 a few weeks ago, it is equally (if not more so) hard to figure out how the heck cute little, blondey blonde Paige became a 4 year old. An extremely independent, fun loving, athletic, did I mention independent (?) 4 year old!! She was my baby girl for 3 years and even now I still have a soft spot for her. We struggle to get her to eat vegetables. We struggle to understand her speach. We struggle to get her to do anything new that even remotely looks different from what she is used to. We sometimes even struggle to get her to do things that she's been doing for months and months!! But through it all, she is a joy. She has a way of giving you a full body, cheeky grin that melts your heart and makes you forget about the hour long screaming tantrum she just had about .. oh, I don't know ... putting a coat on in the middle of winter or something equally inane.

Here are some of my favourite pictures from the past year. You know how hard it has been sometimes to get pictures of her so enjoy these!

June 4/09 - Paige and her BFF had some fun playing in the sand during one of Marley's Blastball games!

June 17/09 - Father's Day Picnic: This was a typical shot of Paige at this time. She LOVED to pull faces!

July 1/09 - Canada Day pancake breakfast in Ladner Village. I just think she looks so serious here. Like she's concentrating on waving that flag so hard there's no room for anything else. So cute!

July 11/09 - We had such a hot summer last year! A LOT of time was spent in the backyard with some sort of frozen treat. Can't you just see the impishness oozing out of her in this picture?

July 26/09 - More of her impish side coming out. She is such a jokester sometimes!!

Oct 24/09 - Paige has a lot of love for her baby sister but sometimes shows it a bit too roughly for LC and my liking. Not here though. Here she is all Proud Big Sister!

Dec 4/09 - I can't remember if I blogged about this moment already (probably) but I was SO proud of Paige this day! She had made a card for our Mailman and one day when we opened the mailbox there was a letter with HER name on it. Inside was a thank you note and these stickers. I don't think her feet touched the ground for the rest of the WEEK!!

Dec 23/09 - I remember that Paige wanted to me to take her picture with her favourite bear ("Shakey Bear"). It was kind of out of the blue and we had been in a long hiding-from-the-camera phase with her so I agreed! She looks so grown up in her jeans but I know if I tried to take that bear away I'd rediscover my baby girl!

Jan 18/10 - I'd just bought my Canon Rebel so took it to her ballet class to "play with it". Paige loves to dance! She is constantly hopping, twirling, skipping, jumping, ... you get the idea. Music speaks to her in a way that is special to see.

Jan 23/10 - More playing around with the new camera. But I just love how this photo captures her cheekiness! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE my new camera?!?!

Feb 15/10 - This was taken during all the festivities surrounding the Olympics (ah, the Olympics ... how I still miss them!! but that's another ramble!) We nicknamed her older sister Monkey because she was climbing before she could walk but I often think it's a moniker we could easily have used for Paige too. And LC for that matter!! Maybe our particular gene pool isn't as far removed from the apes as others? LOL!

Mar 13/10 - Ah Hawaii!! Let's all take a moment to hear the surf, feel the tropical breeze and be warmed by the sun .... and we're back. To reality. Sigh. Greg can't look past the sand around Paige's mouth in this picture but somehow this is one of my absolute favourite snaps of her. I don't know if it's the colours, the grin, the flyaway hair ... but I think she looks amazing here!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little montage of Paige's 3rd year of life. She is a wonderful little girl that I have the privilege of raising. Scary as that thought may be sometimes!! She's moody and uber-cautious but once she finally conquers her nerves she is able to do things that amaze me. Like the flying leaps from the side of the pool in her swimming lessons lately. I'm talking full on swan dives without the actual diving part (water's a bit too shallow to allow that!) Arms and legs stretched to the max. Her characteristic grin plastered ear to ear. It's a sight to behold! Or the acrobatics she was (mostly successfully) pulling on the monkey bars at Marley's school today. Just heart stopping. Quite literally! She has spent the later half of this past year of life really coming into her own. I can't WAIT to see what she does next! Although, according to her she wants to stay 3 forever. Go figure.

I love you Paige! Happy 4th Birthday Sweetheart!!