Hello beautiful girl and Happy 44 Months! Right now you’re sitting on the couch watching Dinosaur Train with your baby doll Maya. Poor Maya, she’s been throwing up all evening and you decided she needed to drink some Ginger Ale, then lie down and take it easy.

Unfortunately, vomiting has found its way into your pretend play because you were sick last week with your first stomach virus in a long time. The illness was fairly short-lived, but made an impression on you nonetheless. The other day you were playing with your bunny family and dollhouse, and poor baby bunny was bent over a bucket the whole time tossing her cookies.

I sure hated that you were sick, but thankfully you recovered quickly enough to enjoy one of my favorite times in Savannah – St. Patrick’s Day! I love this holiday for many reasons. St. Patrick’s Day usually signals the beginning of spring which is a glorious time here, and there are plenty of fun things to do around town to celebrate. This whole town gets excited about St. Pats, even to the point of canceling school on March 17 each year. The excitement is palpable and contagious.

We had a great time at the parade. You brought two of your stegosauruses (because they were green), and even held them up periodically so they could watch the floats and bands. The only floats you didn’t like were the ones that fired cannons. This is what you looked like when they paraded by us.

I put together this little video compilation of this year’s St. Pat’s experience:

This month I finally got around to downloading all the fun pictures you’ve been taking with your camera. The pictures span the past year or so, and while most were taken by you, you also like it when we take your picture too. Especially when we use the little pre-programmed graphics, giving you bunny ears, googly eyes and the like. There were so many fun ones it was hard to choose a few to show here, but I managed to organize some of my favorites into 3 categories.

Friends & Family

Pics of Camille

Camille’s Point-of-View

Speaking of pictures, I grabbed this one with my phone a couple of weeks ago at Boo’s house.

Daddy had discovered several of his old books – the kind that came with a record tucked into a back flap with a recording of someone reading the story. We dusted off Boo’s record player and listened to Winnie-The-Pooh, and it took me right back to my own childhood. I loved those records and books, all except for the Fox and the Hound because it made me cry.

You’re still enjoying chapter books this month, and we just finished our third book in the Magic Treehouse series, one about “Monsters of the Deep.” The book featured a giant octopus, and upon hearing the tale, you were full of questions about octopi. Your Daddy scoured YouTube for some instructional videos, and you two discussed the octopus’ tentacles, beak and such.

I’ll get back to the octopus in a minute, but first let me tell you about a new tradition you have with your Daddy. Once a month, the Jepson Museum holds a toddler art class. You and your Daddy have been attending these, touring the galleries together and then making a craft based on one of the museum’s exhibits.

Last week, the craft was a keepsake box. Your Daddy tells me when the teacher asked everyone what they might put in their keepsake box, most of the girls said “Princesses!” But you shouted, “A GIANT OCTOPUS!”

That’s my girl.

I just love your individuality. If you’d wanted to put princesses in your keepsake box that would’ve be fine too. But I think it’s wonderful that you have your own sense of what’s fun and cool.

Your Daddy found a picture of a giant octopus for you to put in your keepsake box, but there is still plenty of room for other treasures as well. And that’s good because you like to collect things – mostly shells and rocks. A couple of weekends ago we went for a stroll on the beach, and you were nearly overwhelmed by the vast number of shells you could collect. I am really looking forward to coming back here again when the weather warms up so we can spend the whole day inspecting the shells and exploring.

You’re still a big fan of face painting, but it’s not just for your cheek anymore. You really like to paint my cheek. The first time I let you paint my face, I requested a rainbow. I thought you did a wonderful job!

It has been another great month, my love, filled with fun and laughter. I’ll close tonight with another video – one that I watch over and over because
you’re just so funny. It’s a video of you jumping on the bed while your Daddy plays guitar. You’re yelling, “Rock it out, man!” while dancing with two thumbs up and a look on your face like you ate a lemon. I’m not sure where you got this act from, but keep it coming.

I love you so much, my rock-it-out girl! Encore! Encore!