3 years old

oh baby girl! i cannot believe it has been 3 years already since you came into our world!
we are the luckiest people ever to have YOU as the one that introduced us to parenthood!
a little of who you are, miss elena, on your 3rd birthday...

- you play from the moment you wake up. usually with your dolls or your kitchen. and you play until the moment you fall asleep.
- you refuse to leave places. like seriously, you hate leaving. so no matter where we are at, you want to stay. last week i had to fight you to leave the dentist. it's very flattering for the people of where you want to stay, but oh boy does it frustrate the living daylights out of mom and dad! and recently you just started not wanting to leave home to go out. so you literally just don't like to leave.
- when we are out you are phenomenal! seriously, 95% of the time you are a golden child and behave wonderfully for our excursions....ya know, until it's time to go.
- you negotiate. hmm-mmm. it's pretty funny actually. but oh man how frightening when you're doing this at not even 3 years old. ha.
- you just got your first haircut! only a little bit of course. and i mean a real little bit.
- you just went to the dentist for the first time. you loved it. and the dentist loved you. she said you have beautiful teeth and a wonderful diet. she also gave momma one of the best compliments by saying you were "the perfect way to start her day!" :)
- you love to "bake" and everything you make has "2 cups milk, sugar, sour taste and ingredients."
- you have an amazing imagination. you are always at the beach on vacation, getting married, driving to your friend's house, watching a parade, etc.
- you count to 20, but sometimes still throw an "eleventeen" in there. you've been able to count in your head quickly for awhile now...where you look at something and can quickly say, "there's 3 of those, 6 of these, etc."
- you can show the specified number on your fingers and have started some minor adding and subtracting skills this way. if you're baking and need 4 cups of x, you hold up 4 fingers. after you put 2 in, you put 2 fingers down and say "we need 2 more cups", etc. you've done this all by yourself. it's pretty cool.
- you ask the time all the time! for about 3-4 months now you constantly ask "what time is it?" you can sometimes read the #'s off a digital clock. and then we translate what time that reads. sometimes you ask every 10 seconds.
- you write your name...for about 6 months now. we sometimes still have to spell it for you. you have the correct letters, but mix up them up when you spell it.
- the letters you CAN write are A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, Q, R, T, U, V, W, AND Y. you need reminding on how some of them go, but can write most by memory.
writing 'H'...
writing 'F'...
writing 'R'...
- you know all your letter sounds and can say what letter a word starts with.
- you LOVE outside. you particularly love to swing and ride your tricycle.
- you imitate things i say all the time. it's very funny. the other day you told me how disappointed you were in me cuz adelyn had a toy you wanted.
- you say "what?!" all the time as your way of joking. so you'll say, "i'm eating breakfast....WHAT?!" and start cracking up as if you told the funniest joke ever. it is actually pretty funny given your tone.
- you speak very well. everyone is able to understand you usually. there are a few words that are my favorite...."pinata" - you don't pronounce quite right, "corn dog" - you emphasize the 'dog' and i have no idea why and "yea 'mon" - we obviously taught you this when we returned from jamaica and love when you say it.

favorite words e from Molly Leone on Vimeo.

- you can be pretty hyper. you absolutely love to dance!!! it might your favorite pasttime. you love to wrestle around, be chased, tickled and found!
- you like to color and draw. you go in phases with your drawings...sometimes it's always people, then always gardens, then always rainbows, etc. you are fairly good at coloring in the lines and you almost always give each area it's own color... here is a coloring from just last week...

- you recently started getting embarrassed.... when you do something wrong usually or something little like passing gas.
- you love strawberry shortcake and caillou. runner-ups are dora and super why.
- you enjoy movies and go in spurts with them, so we will watch 1 movie for about 3-4 weeks and then it's on to a new one.
- you end up in our bed for at least a little bit about every night. you know to go to daddy's side and he just hikes you over and there you lay right in between us. when i wake up and realize you're there (sometimes 2 minutes, sometimes 4 hours), i take you back or sometimes you tell me you want to go back to your bed.
- we still put a diaper on you to sleep. i probably shouldn't, but we have them and so i do. you hardly wet overnight and when you wake up to come in our bed, you often take it off anyways.
- you can be bossy. you're VERY determined. you have a great sense of humor. you are so kind and sweet, especially to your younger friends. you are smart and love to learn. you are emotional, fairly fearful and usually very considerate of others. you love to narrate. you are extremely joyful and absolutely light up our lives!

happy birthday baby girl!

"A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip." ~Author Unknown