as usual. should you be interested in reading this. be prepared with some time, something yummy and some caffeine.
sweet G.
this is almost to-the-day one month late. but there has been so much to remember about where you are right now. and i wanted to capture it all.
first thing i'd like to say is...goo.
i adore you, sweet girl. just seeing your face makes me so happy. those eyes. oh my, those eyes.
i can't believe you are THREE YEARS OLD. what in the world? i am officially that mom who says in kind of a dorky voice, "land sakes, where has all the time gone?" (for the record, not sure mama has ever said land sakes. just clarifying.)
i can remember the night before you were born. i could NOT sleep. not due to discomfort. but to excitement and adrenalin. i could NOT WAIT to meet you. couldn't wait to find out if big h was going to have a sister or brother. and then, the doc said, "hello sweetheart." and i cried. just ask weentrab. i couldn't believe you were a girl. i was thrilled for me. for your daddy. for your brother.
anyway...you're three. and i L-O-V-E this age. the day your brother turned three, your daddy and i were very happy people. such is the case with you as well.
you are such a delight. we are definitely starting to see what your personality will look like. and the words that pop into my head are sassy, stubborn, funny, compassionate, mischevious. we have our work cut out for us. :)
you love all things "pin-tess." (princess) for your birthday party, we had five of your "friends" over to our house in their princess dresses. i believe you changed dresses six times. you ADORE princess shoes. the cheap, plastic ones. the cheap, plastic ones that give you blisters because you wear them to the playground. in the summertime. ouch. you love crowns, necklaces, wands, and you want to love earrings but the toy ones we get you break the minute you put them on. you've all but given up. me too, sister. you call cinderella "boo pin-tess" and sleeping beauty "pink pin-tess." you want to have nothing to do with snow white. hmmm...not sure about that. you call tinkerbell "kinkybell," and we routinely ask you about her just so we can listen to you say her name. it is hilarious. note to self: daddy and i find kinkybell and her friends to be very slut*y and sk*nky. and you call brides "white pin-tesses." we went to my cousin's wedding, and she tickled you at the reception. i thought you were going to faint.
but your favorite pin-tess of ALL TIME is ay-yuhl. you love little mermaid so much. you love all of the songs, and you can spot an ariel from MILES away. we have the polly pocket version of ay-yuhl. you have two pairs of ay-yuhl jammies. you have an ay-yuhl bath toy. but your ALL TIME ay-yuhl toy is the ay-yuhl diving toy that came in a pack. we've lost one ay-yuhl bath toy at church. but this second one has been around for a while. (fyi: it bothers daddy and me that ariel wears the least amount of clothing out of all of the princesses. sigh.)
you used to love doh-ruh a lot too. you had dora socks. a dora nightie (which you were adamant about wearing pants with). a dora skirt. and plenty of dora "trinkets." we watch dora storytime theaters. you love the $3 dora books we can get at wal-mart. you love the dora "theme song." you love boots and all of dora's friends (tico, benny, "gumpy old toll," isa, and swiper.)
for a long time, you were smitten with diego and moreso baby da-dar (jaguar). you made the rair rair noise all. the. time. you would say his sister's alicia's name all the time and talk about how she would show up on diego's "bideo wash." diego's kind of gone by the wayside. poor diego. however, one animal that has NOT been phased out is tapir. you adore tapir. and from the looks of your imaginary play, so do all of your other toys. he's quite popular with the ladies.
your favorite superhero (yes...in THIS house, everyone is required to have a favorite superhero) is wumberwun. you love that she wears a crown. but when you talk about being a superhero yourself, you always say you're "fash tomsun." and then you say "super PAST" constantly for about ten minutes. you have a wumberwun t-shirt and a pink biterman t-shirt. you LOVE wearing them.
oh, and speaking of superheroes, when we ask you what your super power would be, you always respond, "a t*tty tat who can walk." aim for the stars, sister. aim for the stars.
one of your favorite phrases is "you make me so____." lately it's been "big h makes me so angry." that breaks mama's heart so mcuh. daddy and i pray constantly that you and big h would be the best of friends. that you would be each other's sidekick. and for the most part, that's true. but my favorite is when something is funny, you laugh and laugh and laugh (kind of a fake, forced laugh) and say, "that make me so sih-wee." you are your own best crowd. you find yourself quite amusing.
one of your favorite things to do (as well as big h) is to sit in my computer chair with big h right when you wake up while he plays computer games. you love to provide running commentary of everything he does. and he loves "showing off."
when you don't get your way or you get sad, you literally throw yourself on the couch or at the odd chair at the dining room table and cry until one of us "yubs" on you.
after a meal or really anytime, you do NOT like to have your hands "ticky." even though you are a royal mess everywhere else.
you can drink a juicebox faster than a frat boy can chug a beer. and you absolutely MANGLE the top of a straw. we always know which drink is yours because of the completely smashed straw. the straw NEVER wins with you.
when you put your shoes on, you put them on the wrong feet. every. time. and you used to get really, really mad when i would tell you to put them on the right feet. now you put them on, smile, and say, "mama, these on the right feet?" and you clap for yourself when you do them the right way.
interesting to daddy and me...your hair does NOT grow. and if it does, it does so at a snail's pace. oh my. by this point, your brother was getting haircuts regularly. you've had two. and since we've gotten it cut, it no longer goes in ponytails. which makes me mommy very, very sad. if it's not in a bow, it is in your face. to the point of you not being able to see. you're like our very own cousin it.
potty training. i talked it several times when we started. and then i was determined NOT to talk about it again. your brother potty trained in three days. not you. you were not motivated. didn't care about getting doh-ruh wet or ay-yuhl wet. didn't care about having "anything else" in your doh-ruhs or ay-yuhls. didn't care about m'n'm's or skittles. didn't care about our applause. you weren't toy motivated (like your brother, oh my word). basically you got excited to tell us that you "made water" and "made bown poopoos." and even big h was excited. still to this day, you tell us about both. you don't stay dry at night very often. but you are still in your crib, so we attribute some of it to that. you stay dry at naps, though. i will go on record stating you have the bladder of a camel. you don't go often but when you do, oh my. 'nuff said.
you love puzzles. floor puzzles. you still love the wooden piece puzzles. big ones, small ones. you're not the #1 puzzle girl in your district by any stretch, but they sure do bring you a lot of joy.
you love polly pockets. i have no idea why because all of us are the ones putting on the shoes the size of a hang nail. and you're not very delicate with the dresses or heads. we have had several decapitated PPs and some ripped dresses. it's tough being a PP around our house. (shhh...big h loves to play them with you. don't tell his friends.)
your favorite drink is orange juice. and you would take it by IV if we'd let you. we limit it to morning (not very much) and sometimes lunchtime. you don't mind other drinks (milk, apple juice, lemonade, water, etc.) but OJ is definitely your drink of choice.
foods? interesting. because you don't eat very often. we joke that if you have lunch, we assume you won't touch your dinner. or if you don't eat lunch, you'll enjoy quite a hearty dinner. it used to frustrate us and cause us to talk about discipline with you. but then we realized what was the case. you also don't really like breakfast. you'll eat donuts on friday mornings. but you kind of pick at it and then go look at the book of baskin robbins ice cream pin-tess cakes. you like bacon and sausage. but really? just some orange juice is fine with you. you LOVE chick-fil-a and literally eat the crumbs of your 4-pc nuggets, fruit, adn lemonade. most times you ask big h if you can have some of his chicken. you love grapes, cherry tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, can-uh-yope, mango, basically any fruit (or fruit-uh, as you call it), edamame beans, pei wei rice and chicken, spaghetti, green beans, meatloaf, corn, mashed potatoes, sweets (ice cream, brownies, cookies, candy). you love fruit gummies, and you ADORE the dried flat fruit we get from sprouts or central market. you do NOT like deli meat, hamburgers, or grilled cheese sandwiches. you love cheese cubes, black olives (ah-yubs), hot dogs, green trees (brocolli) only made at pei wei (you're a bit of a food snob), pah-cor (popcorn), pah-cuhls (popsicles), my smart start cereal only if it's in my bowl with my spoon, and you're sitting in my lap.
you are obsessed with boo boos, bandages (bandaids), and meh-sin and talk about these things constantly.
i am still madly in love with the third toe on your left foot. it's just a tad bit raised, and i feel like it has its own personality.
you had your second eye surgery this year, and now your eyes are very sensitive to light. EVERY TIME we go outside when it is bright, you immediately ask me for your "sungyasses." and you will wear them until i make you take them off.
you are an extraordinarily healthy kid.
your sleep is UH-MAZING! you go to sleep about 730pm and wake up anywhere between 730-9am. it's crazy. you wake up in a good mood every morning. unless big h comes in first and BLASTS on the light. that turns your mood FOUL very quickly. bless his heart, he rockets out of bed in the mornign and assumes everyone else does too. you still take a two-hour nap everyday too. nuts.
at night, you take your bath with big h still. that'll probably end soon. but most nights, you guys have so much fun together playing with your toys. when you get out, you skip to your room, put on your own pull up and your jammies. we read stories, and when we say, "ok, goo, it's time to go to bed," you say, "ok." you hug daddy and say night night to him. then, you hug big h and push him over while saying night night. crazy. then, it's our time. and i look forward to this every night. i hold you and whatever toy you decide to bring to bed. usually ay-yuhl dive toy. we sing "pwinkle pwinkle." (actually i make you sing it so i can smile from ear to ear.) then, you sing the abc's which sound like this "a,b,d,d,e,f,d,q,r,s,t,u,b,w,s,y,z..." it is freaking hilarious. then we sing the "glad to read the bible"song. those are our three staples. depending on how tired you are, we'll rotate in "go tell it on the mountain," "jesus loves me," "jesus loves the little children," and "if you're happy and you know it." then, i kiss you and lay you in bed. usually with a pin-tess dress on. we talk to jesus, and i always cross my fingers that you'll be the one to pray because they're awesome. "dear dezus, tank you for uh day. tank you for mommy. tank you for priends. and tank you for cinderayuh. amen." then, i turn on baby tad for him to sing you his six minutes 'til nighttime. "i love you, goo." "i yub you too, mama." and i close the door. and come close to crying every night.
you love going to church. when we get out of the car, you run up to the greeters and give them high fives. then, we walk into the nursery area and you comment on all the animals. (it's a jungle theme.) big h runs to your class, and you follow him. and every morning (because i'm a bit of a creature of habit), i say to all of the nursery workers, "it's a shame they lack enthusiasm." that line probably gets old to everyone. but i adore watching you chase after your brother and love church. you proudly put your name tag on and walk right in. no crying. nothing. "see ya, goo." we pick you up, and you show us your craft. we walk through the lobby, out the door, and immediately start smelling the flowers. then, you like to try to walk the curb as well as try to find a roly poly. and if one of you finds one and the other doesn't, well then the day can be classified a disaster in your eyes and in big h's.
you will be in a new class this year at school. last year was your first year or preschool (or children's day out), and you loved it. your speech skyrocketed, you learned to use the potty, and you learned to be with other authority figures who loved you as their own. you were right across the hall from big h, and you loved that. this year is going to be tough because big h starts "big school" on monday. that's a different post for a different day. (deep breath in, deep breath out. pass the DP.) you don't know your numbers or letters as well as your brother did at this age, but you'll pick them up in no time. i'm praying you have the same teachers big h did. we adore them.
when you smile really big, you squint with your right eye.
when you hear music, you get your groove on IMMEDIATELY and IMMEDIATELY say loudly "look, mama. i'm shaking my bobbum." you're classy like that. delicate flower, we always call you. :)
you LOVE to color. on anything. emphasis on anything. and everything. couch...check. walls...check. yourself...check, check, check. and you are ONLY content with markers. not crayons (crair-rins). not colored pencils. just markers. and i think you'd prefer them all to be sharpies.
we're signing you up for ballet this fall. God help us. actually, God help your teacher. but you talk about "doing bah-yay" all. the. time. so we're taking the plunge. i'm probably going to cry the first day.
you did gymnastics for the first time with big h this summer. he's been doing since he was one. we decided it was time to let you in on the fun. you LOVE it. love the teacher. love everything about it. but for the life of you, you cannot jump. at least not with both feet together. so watching you "jump" on the trampoline is freaking hilarious. you basically gallop around the edges. i love it. and i laugh out loud.
goo, you're awesome. you make our life so rich. i cannot wait to meet your freshman roommate. i can't wait to meet your best friend in seventh grade. and i sure can't wait to meet that spouse of yours. oh my. he's in for it. :) you are a beautiful girl, inside and out. i pray the very best for you EVERY NIGHT. i smile when i think about you. i smile when i look at your picture on my phone. i smile when i look at you on the monitor at night. i smile when i hear you talking to big h about superheroes.
i love you, sweet girl. happy birthday.
