Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy Birthday Pea Pod

I don’t even know where to begin.  These birthday posts get harder and harder every year!  You have grown so much over the past year but it seems like yesterday that you were born.  How is it possible that you are 3 years old?  We are in awe of you every single day, you never fail to surprise us. 

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So what have you been doing this year?  Where do I even start?  We really should rename the “terrible twos” to the “hidden treasure twos”.  We have had our fair share of tantrums, fits, and stubbornness, but you truly did not live up to the old stereotype of a terrible two year old.  I would just say that you have become more assertive with your personality.  You are very strong willed and definitely know what you do and do NOT like and are not afraid to let us know about it. 

You have become quite the discriminatory eater, where you once ate whatever touched your plate, you now are much more cautious in what you put in that mouth.  Your favorites right now are pancakes, pretty much any bread, cheese, apples, bananas, bean burritos, and pizza.  Getting you to drink much of anything is a daily struggle, you just don’t like to drink.

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We tried a lot of new activities this year, some you liked.  

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Some you did NOT.  (notice you pitching a fit in the background at Carowinds)DSC01543

You really enjoy going to museums, as long as the exhibits are not gigantic dinosaur models, or life size elephants, going to the park, playing by the pool, and just being silly.  

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One of your biggest accomplishments this year was learning to walk.  Just a few weeks ago, you walked completely independently suddenly at Grandma’s house one night, trying to get you to play follow the leader.  We were all so happy to see you finally walking by yourself.  You seem to be much happier not to have to depend on us or a device to get to where you want to go.  Life is also a little easier not having to carry you around, you are starting to get very heavy!

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You have your own little way of communicating with us.  You don’t have a huge vocabulary, but we manage to get by just fine.  You know a little sign language, and have made up some of your own signs.  You finally started saying “Mom”, one of the sweetest words I have ever heard.  Some of the words you say are dog, cat, apple, bird, gone, snow, “paw”, da-da, NO, good, and bad all very clearly.  Those are just a few.  It seems like you pick up a new word everyday. 

You still get a lot of therapy, but when you turned 3 the school system took over your therapy and you don’t get quite as much as you used to.  We are kinda of glad to see you getting to spend more time in your regular classroom instead of being pulled out for therapy.  Speaking of school, you really like school, and everyone at school thinks you are just the cutest and sweetest thing ever.  You have the best teachers, Ms. Kim and Ms. Tabitha.  They are so good to you, but they also don’t let you get away with your usual little antics!

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You love to play and are very good at pretend play.  You can be a very girly girl one minute playing with your dolls and playing dress up and then quite the tom boy the next minute playing with trains, cars, and dinosaurs.  One of your new things to play with is your iPad.  It’s amazing to watch you play with it.  Its almost like you knew how to work it as soon as we took it out of the box.  You are such a smart little girl and love to figure things out for yourself.  You are also very fond of television.  We probably let you watch too much of it.  Some of your favorites shows are Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  You also like movies, Alice in Wonderland and Coraline are your favorites.

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Potty training has been hit or miss.  We bought some big girl underwear and you did ok for a few days, but then decided the potty just wasn’t for you yet.  So we are still working on that.  You’re not a huge fan of bath time either.  You do NOT like to have your hair washed!  You are still a pretty good sleeper though.  You still go to bed around 7:30pm and get up at 7:30 am.  You take a nap around 1:30 until 4.  You have always enjoyed your sleep!!!  We recently put up your big girl bed.  You weren’t very happy about it the first couple of nights, but you are starting to warm up to it a little bit. 

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We can’t begin to tell you how much you mean to us.  We may just be partial because you are ours, but you are a very special little kid and have taught us so much.  We can’t believe how fast time has gone, we just turned around and you are now 3 years old.  Keep growing and learning! 

We love you!

Mom and Da

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for making me cry, lol! I love her so much, I'm not going to be happy when she moves up:(