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How it is that you’re turning 3 in just a few days? My big girl. You seem so much bigger with Josiah around for comparison. Since he is the big news since my last update, let me tell you how wonderful a sister you are turning out to be. I was warned by so many people how jealous you might be, how you might revert to babyhood, even when it came to things like potty-training. All the concern was for naught, so far, anyway. You have been nothing but your wonderful self and more. Now you are also a sister. But your personality hasn’t changed. And you are completely enthralled with him, such a little “mommy” yourself. You call him “baby ‘Siah” and you say it with such love in your voice. You tell us he’s “soooo cute,” at least a dozen times a day.You are concerned for his well-being letting us know his “baby ‘Siah binky fall off” or that “baby ‘Siah crying.” You frequently give us updates like that about what he’s doing in your sweet little toddler voice. You are as gentle as I could hope an almost 3-year-old to be. And as quiet as I could possibly expect when he’s sleeping. Sometimes you have a hard time listening when it comes to not touching him when he’s sleeping. That’s a little frustrating for me. Seems like you wake him up at least once a day when I’d really prefer he stay napping. But I can’t fault you too much. You are little and he is very cute. It’s not obstinate. You just forget. Every now and then you’re a little rough or a little too loud, but mostly you’re amazing. And you have a special little laugh, just for him. It’s a silly laugh full of wonder and excitement, and you only started doing it when your little brother came into your life and started being “so cute” around you. You do a stellar job when we let you hold him, as long as you’re not in a goofy mood. When you’re calm, you will put your hands just like I show you and hold him, perfectly supporting his head and managing to look adorable and so in love yourself the whole time. I have so much fun taking pictures of you guys together, my kids, plural. 🙂 Here are a few of my favorites of you together in the past 8 weeks since he was born.
And you’ve been so patient with me and my divided attention. I feel guilty that I haven’t done more special things for you lately, more projects, tot school activities and the like. It’s hard balancing the both of you for sure. I’m really tired, not sleeping as much as I’d like. And of course Josiah demands a lot of my time. You’re definitely watching more TV than I’d like these days. But then we also do a lot of family activities together. And even when we’re watching TV, it’s usually all of us in bed together playing and talking with the TV on. And I wish that I was perfectly patient with you. I feel like I could do better with that right now. It’s definitely more of a struggle with sleep deprivation and my attention being pulled in opposite directions now. It won’t always be like this I know. I’m trying to soak it all up right now, the chaos of it all. We’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming eventually. Right now, I’m going with the flow and trying to keep us all sane. And I think it’s working for the most part.
You’ve always been pretty independent and in the past year have gotten good about entertaining yourself. You make huge “neat” messes. There is always order in your chaos. It makes me smile thinking about it. You’re toys can be everywhere, but they tend to be organized everywhere – grouped by kind, in rows. You have a number and letter puzzle whose pieces are especially great for trailing in long rows across multiple rooms. You tell me you’re making “treasure trails” (Jake and the Neverland Pirates, maybe?) For about a week or so, you fished off my bed with some strings you have. you line them all up, wait, and then let me know you “got one,” which we of course both have to sample. And you are, of course, still battling a full-fledged addiction to stickers. Dolls and babies are definitely growing in popularity. You give them “milk from Momma’s boobies” (haha) and burp them and come running when they “cry.”
I’ve always thought I wanted to have my kids back to back, really close together. But I think this was actually about perfect. I’m really glad I had you all to myself for almost 3 years. And that you’re old enough to actually know and appreciate what’s going on with our new addition. It all seems “right” somehow, the timing. You are independent and really mature in a lot of ways. You think you are too. We hear that classic toddler phrase, “I do it myself,” frequently around here. I don’t have to worry about you too much or micro-manage you. You’re self-sufficient about many things and you’re rarely “bad.” You are pretty whiny these days, something I’m always trying to coax out of you. You never get anything from me when you whine. But you still whine. So everything takes longer than it should because you have to whine first, then have me explain that you need to ask me in a nice voice and you’re not getting whatever it is until that happens, and then you whine some more and I explain again, sometimes we repeat the scenario one more time, and then finally you give in and ask nicely. A million times a day since you started talking. You do have a pretty stellar grumpy face to go along with the whines, when you’re not being cute 0r silly.
You use the word “me” in place of “I” and “my.” Something we’ve started working on. I haven’t corrected your grammar much at all in the previous months. We were just so glad you started talking! So you say things like “me love Momma,” “me NOT happy,” “me toys,” and one of my favorites after you go potty, “That was a close one. Me go sooo bad. Momma SAVED me,” hehe. Oh also, “Me good helper!” And you are. You’re always willing to lend a hand in anything. You especially love getting stuff for Josiah, like his wipes and diapers.
You have a great sense of humor. I love when you think things are funny. Mimi started telling you that you are “too much,” when you’re especially cute. You like to argue with us playfully that no, “Mimi too much!” And everything and everybody is silly when little mistakes are made. Say I drop a sock on the floor, you tell me “silly Momma,” and giggle. If you do something incorrectly, like try to place the wrong puzzle piece or something it’s, “silly me!”
You’re right on the edge of not needing naps. You do actually function much better when you get one, but you can go without and I feel bad making you get in bed in the middle of the day when it gets dark at 4:30. It’s so confusing for you to wake up in the dark. So lately I’ve just been putting you to bed early instead unless we have a big evening planned. Honestly, you’re a good enough kid that it doesn’t bother me too much not getting that break in the afternoon. You’re pretty low maintenance for a toddler.
And I’m really proud of your willingness to try just about any food. You’re exceptionally good about TRYing things. Eating everything off your plate, not so much. But that’s fine. I’m happy that you keep an open enough mind to give new things a go. Then, if you don’t like it, we don’t make you eat it. And we never force you to eat more than you want to eat. So far letting you moderate your own intake has kept you at a perfectly healthy weight. Of course if you don’t eat meals, you also don’t get treats either. That’s always a good motivator. I’m sure we give you too many sweets. But then we’re sweet junkies ourselves so we can’t deny you. We’ve always eaten healthy, but I’ve never been able to give up the candy. You’re still talking about your candy basket from Halloween and the Harvest Party we went to at church.
Well, we’re about to celebrate your birthday twice this week. I’m sure I’ll post a little update about our upcoming activities. But for now, BED. Your sleepy Momma has to find a way to get a few hours sleep so that we can do it all again tomorrow. Love you, Babe.
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Back again, after your special day. So, you’re THREE. Wow. We took you to the San Diego Zoo. You asked to meet the monkeys first, then the hippos, and the tigers (which you never saw since they were hiding, but still insist that those were your favorite.) You thought it was pretty cool. Your favorite part was probably getting to choose a gift from the gift shop. We showed you 101 stuffed animals to choose from. You decided on a cheap plastic water bottle with a shoulder strap. No amount of convincing could change your mind. Silly Waywee.
And after the Zoo, we stopped by a bakery and let you choose your very own gourmet cupcake (I think I mentioned before, cake is what you’ve been totally obsessed over this birthday. It’s all you’ve kept telling us you want. Chocolate cake, with candles, for blowing out, to be exact. 🙂 ) So you picked your cupcake – chocolate of course – and made sure you had a chance to blow out some candles. We brought one with us to the Mexican restaurant we ate dinner at. We lit it and were about to sing to you when out of no where the Mariachi guys appeared and sang you a birthday song. It was awesome because we didn’t tell them to do it. And you were thrilled. It was adorable. You did your goofy giggle and watched wide-eyed the whole time. And you loved your cake.
And you got a second cake, on your real birthday a couple days later. You also woke up to a balloon-stuffed hallway and birthday pancakes. You now think your birthday is a week-long affair.
You liked your second cake, chocolate with candles, too. 😉