Della turned 3 years old last Thursday. It’s funny, because everyone says oh my gosh, I can’t believe she’s 3, but I can. It honestly feels like it has been 3 years – hasn’t gone too fast; hasn’t gone too slow. Just right. Which is perfect for enjoying every day with this amazing little girl.
I was waiting to write this post until we got her official 3 year stats from her checkup, so here they are:
- Height: 39″ (85%. i was actually surprised this wasn’t a higher %)
- Weight: 29.8 lbs. (50%. and i thought this one was going to be a lower %)
- Blood pressure: 93/68 (i think. they didn’t write this one down for me, but i’m pretty sure that’s what the machine read)
I really have no idea where to begin for her 3rd birthday post, because there is so much that goes on with this one. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s beautiful, she’s crazy, she’s extremely well-behaved (usually), she’s our first.
She loves to dance around and make up her own songs now, which is absolute music to my ears. Even when I have no clue what the words are.
She has definitely inherited my somewhat of a perfectionist streak. For example, her dishes and silverware have to match in color. Everything has its place, and she knows exactly where that is. Fortunately, this also makes her an excellent cleaner-upper, which comes in very handy when her little sister is constantly crawling around the house like a whirling dervish.
She knows her ABCs, can count to 10 (the numbers between 11-20 are getting there, but they’re rarely in order. and the other day she threw a “twelve-teen” in there. we’ll work on those), knows how to spell Della (and i think knows how to spell Lana too), and has a whole repertoire of actual songs that she loves to sing – the ABC song, Wheels on the Bus, Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ring Around the Rosy, On Top of Spaghetti, and on and on.
Her coloring skills are becoming masterful. A few months ago she surprised us by drawing great circles out of the blue one day. And recently we’ve noticed how well she can stay in the lines now.
She absolutely adores playing at the park still and just being outside in general. I take the 2 of them for runs in the stroller all the time, and she just loves it. Afterwards we usually walk around the neighborhood for a bit so I can cool down, and she always requests a walk to the fire station to see if the trucks are outside, then by the library, and then by the fountain across the street from the library to make hand and footprints around it if it’s not too green from algae.
My best garbage pick yet came just the other week, all for her. I returned from a long walk with them and saw a perfectly good Little Tykes slide and an adjustable basketball hoop sitting by the curb just a few blocks down from us. You’d have thought it was Christmas by how excited she was for that slide. I was thrilled, since I have been looking for an inexpensive backyard something for her forever. Can’t beat free!
She loves purple, all the Sesame Street characters, Monsters Inc., Toy Story, Team Umizoomi, Dora, and reading. Her favorite foods include chicken nuggets, pb&j, bananas, Cuties (those little tiny oranges), fruit snacks, Kix cereal, french fries, string cheese, applesauce, yogurt, and pasta. She is on her 2nd round of swim lessons and can’t get enough.
She’s already into size 4T pants, as long as they have an adjustable waist to cinch around her tiny belly. Her shoes are about 8-9, and she just got some new pairs that she loves to pieces.
She is so helpful, and such a fantastic big sister. You’d think it’s always the younger one who’d want to follow the big one around, but often times that order is reversed in our home. Della loves to follow Lana around the house, imitating her little sounds and motions as they go. I’m so happy we were able to give her a sister.
I really can’t describe how much I love this little girl. She is an absolute dream, and we could not have been luckier when she came into our family. This past year spent at home with her has been better than I ever expected, and I’ll never be able to thank her enough for making me so wonderfully happy.
Happy 3rd birthday, Della Jolee! We love you so much!
