Happy Birthday, Laurel

Thanks to everyone who made Laurel's birthday so special. She told me after everyone had gone home that I did a "good, job, Mommy, on the cake". I took zero pictures - whoops - but what sticks with me is the image of her face lit up by three birthday candles. After we dimmed the lights, there was a pause before everyone started to sing, and in that quiet moment, I saw a look of pure delight and joy, because she's three, and it's all about the moment. She wasn't sitting there wondering what the next year would bring her. She doesn't have goals. She doesn't have unmet expectations about her year of being two. No birthday baggage at all. She just loves the song and that's it about her for that moment and when the lights come back on, you get to eat cake.