Hi Malena!

I don't know if I've mentioned my niece, Malena, before. If I haven't, sorry.

She is the cutest thing ever!

Here are some of the things that endear her to me:

At Christmas, she asked me, "Aunt Sephernie. Where's your hubsband?"

She and her dad (former Army special ops guy) went to Costco. She saw the jewelry counter and said, "Oh, look at the sparklies!" Her dad said, "The sparklies are for mommies." Malena replied rather matter-of-factly, "Little girls like sparklies, too!"

My sister and brother-in-law have birthdays ten days apart in April. Malena got to "plan" their birthdays. I think she got to choose where they ate, what kind of cake they got, and the presents. Malena's birthday is in July. She turns four. Malena has been planning her birthday since April. (Imagine this in little girl voice--I do a pretty good version in person) "I want a princess party. And it will be pink and purple and red. I want a pinata. I want a chocolate cake with cupcakes. I want to have [names of ten friends from church] to come to my party. I want [giant list of toys that she wants--longer than the receipt you get at Fry's when they have their case sale]."

Yesterday, I got an email from my sister. The subject was "hi." I opened it. It read, "i love you malena" She is practicing her typing. You can't start too soon.

One night, as she was saying her prayers before bed, she said, "Bless mommy to keep me safe. Bless daddy to be nice and give me fruit salad."

She obviously loves fruit (see above). My sister has told her, "Malena, you can have more fruit after you eat all your chocolate cake." Jennilyn (the said sister) may be the only person in the history of the world to utter those words.

The Easter Bunny came to her house while she was at church. It had snowed that day. She told her parents that her daddy had to be the Easter Bunny since there weren't any bunny tracks in the snow. Do you think she'll fall for the tooth fairy?

That little girl is as cute as a button. And I love buttons. I am going to visit her for her princess birthday party in two weeks. I can hardly wait.