My big little girl

Two recent milestones: we celebrated Gillian's third birthday, and she got her first haircut.  Until now, her hair has presented a styling challenge.  After she lost her newborn hair, it came back kind of oddly--first the back, then after a long while, the top and front.  Consequently, she had a sort of cap of hair, with a mullet-ish longer section in back. I didn't want to cut the mullet and leave her with just a little beanie of hair, but eventually it all came down to below her ears, to the point where she was ready for her first haircut.  I think it really makes her look three:

Her birthday was a lot of fun.  Miss Diane, the girls' local adopted grandmother (Prin's mom) came bearing an enormous Hello Kitty balloon (and other gifts), the babysitters (who are practically part of our family too) came, and our friends with two kids also ages 4 and 2 came.  We all had hot sandwiches and salads and cake and cupcakes and ice cream, and it was a nice time.  My favorite moment of the day was when we sang to Gillian, and she stood in front of her cake and cupcakes and beamed down at the floor, so very pleased to be the center of attention, even though she usually doesn't like all eyes on her.

She's so solemn but so funny sometimes; her kind of funny is different from Allison Clare's, which is far more dramatic.  Gillian has had this very mature sense of irony for at least a year now.  Today she donned her play chef's cap and then asked for help fastening her apron:

G: Mom, can you put this on me?  I'm a baker.  I need to put this Hello Kitty in the oven.
Me, laughing: What?  You need to put Hello Kitty in the oven?  That's not very nice.
G, deadpan: I'm a mean baker.

She also has a way of expressing herself in the most poignant possible terms.  When Sam was out of town for a couple of days, she declared mournfully one morning, "I'm all alone in this world without a daddy."

And when I asked her not long ago, teasingly, if she felt loved, she said, "No."  I asked what she needed and she suggested, "If I died, you could bring me back to life."

Where does she get these things, just on the cusp of three years of age? JS says she is an old soul--not just a recycled 20th-century soul, but a truly ancient one.