Now you are Three.

Dear my darling Zoe Jean, I can hardly believe I am writing this on the eve of your third birthday. How these first three years have flown by, but at the same time I cannot even picture what my life was like without you in it; what did I even do with all my time?!

You have come on so much this past 12 months, not just with important developmental things like potty training and speech acquisition but so strongly in your personality. We are starting to see glimpses of the person you are turning into, and I am not going to lie, you are pretty rad.

You are hugely into films, which is kind of weird for someone so young, but you have this incredible attention span and love nothing more than snuggling with us and watching a good film. Recent favourites include; Night at the Museum (1,2&3), Hotel Transylvania (I love how you pronounce Dracula as Draclear) and Coraline. You remember the words to songs really well, and your latest favourite film is Ballerina; you love to stand and dance along with Felicie - we really must get you to a ballet class soon.

You love playing with dolls and plaiting hair, you are so caring to your toys and often like to pretend they are in hospital and you are the doctor making them well again, or that it is bedtime and you tuck them up ready for sleep. You love drawing and colouring and your pictures are starting to resemble actual things now, your people have arms and legs and faces and look like people!

You have finally got the hang with your scooter steering and you really fly along now! You are so brave and strong at the park, tackling the big kids frames and climbing so high with little fear. You are not scared of anything, which is so strange for me as I was a really frightened kid. You watch movies with monsters and like the dark and talking about ghosts. You climb high and slide down the highest slide at soft play all by yourself - I am in awe of you.

You are such a sociable little person and will speak to anyone and everyone, whether it is a lady walking her dog who get a 'good morning lady, good morning doggy' as we pass, or waiters in restaurants who you chat away to like old friends. People are drawn to you, not just for your amazing hair, but because of your infectious smile and open heart - I hope you never lose that.

You see the very best in people and help me to see it too, you notice everything and point it out, making me stop and really take in the little details of the world around us. You force me to stop and think and smile and that is an amazing gift.

This year hasn't been without its fair share of challenges though, you are a very strong minded little girl and once you set your mind to something it can't be easily changed. You get frustrated very easily if something proves difficult and I try very hard to encourage you to push through and try again. I can see a little perfectionist streak coming through especially with your drawing, you want to draw a horse but when it doesn't look like a horse you are upset, but I hope with time you will see that practise and perseverance are important and not all things will come as easily.

I cannot wait to see what is next for you, Seeing you grow and blossom into an amazing person is just simply amazing and I want the next 12 months to go a bit slower so we can really enjoy this time with you before we start to think about school and everything that goes along with that.

Happy 3rd Birthday Zoe Chops.