January 7, 2015
Wow, that’s the first time I’ve written 2015. Which means I haven’t been on here talking about you in a VERY long time. Sorry about that. Your personality grows every day, as do your crazy antics. You love to stand on your little stool, pretend to clear your throat (complete with fist against your mouth and everything), and start a “Ladies and Gentlemen” speech. It’s hysterical. You’re usually doing it in conjunction with Della, and the speeches introduce you two as queens and/or princesses. You sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “The Farmer in the Dell,” “Jingle Bells,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Ring Around the Rosie,” and you like to read Goodnight Moon and Brown Bear, Brown Bear to yourself. You can easily say all your ABCs now, your counting gets better daily, and you’re learning both colors and how to hold up fingers for numbers. You are definitely one smart little cookie. Happy New Year, my little bean!
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January 14, 2015
You singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” is about the cutest thing ever. Today when we were at the doctor’s office you were singing “Twinkle, Twinkle” in the parking lot, stopped when we entered the office, and as soon as we got back out into the parking lot you started belting it out again like nothing had interrupted you. You crack me up.
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January 21, 2015
Today you put your socks on all by yourself for the first time. Great job! Granted, they were on inside out, but that’s ok. Nice work, little one! Now you can start doing your shoes and socks on your own, since you’ve been putting your shoes on the correct feet for a while now. We’ll probably have to wait until we’re done wearing snow boots, though. Those are still a little too tricky for you.
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January 25, 2015
Today you put your pants on all by yourself correctly – excellent! Now if we could just work on that using the toilet thing, you’d be golden.
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January 28, 2015
On January 18, I finally saw your first two 2-year molars coming in. Both the top ones were about 1/3 of the way in; I’d been looking for signs of those for months, then all of a sudden there they were! Still no signs of the bottom ones yet.
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February 18, 2015
You peed on the potty seat tonight!! I thought this day would never come, since you’ve shown such little interest in potty training. It was after your bath, you were standing in the shower waiting to get out, and you looked down saying you were pooping. You call everything pooping apparently. I asked if you wanted to pee on your seat instead, you said yes, I dried you off, you sat down, tried to get up after a second, I told you to sit back down and wait until I was finished with Della, then a few seconds later you looked up with a huge grin on your face. You had just peed in your little bowl and you were so proud! I was too, sweetheart, great job! I did bring up all the underwear for you to start wearing when it’s time the other night, so maybe seeing those has finally spurred you into action. Yippee!
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February 26, 2015
So potty training might not be starting after all. You have showed zero interest in it since you peed on the bowl the other night, and today you even started crying when I tried to get you to poop or pee on there after I heard you say, “Leave me alone,” which is your tell-tale sign that you’re pooping in your diaper. Ah well. I had very much hoped to have you out of diapers before #3 arrives, but I’m definitely not going to rush this. I’ve heard that just ends in disaster. I guess you’ll learn when you’re good and ready. Even if you are 25 by then.
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February 27, 2015
I think you have a little bit of a stutter. Some sentences come out clear as a bell, but others take you a couple tries to get started. Everything you say is perfectly understandable, though, and you don’t seem to get frustrated at all with it, so I’m not going to worry too much about it. I still love when your little tongue flies out of your mouth on certain words. It’s hilarious.
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March 4, 2015
I finally saw a tiny tip of your bottom right 2-year molar poking through this morning. Those guys are taking their sweet time coming in for you.
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March 11, 2015
Saw the very beginning tips of your bottom left 2-year molar poking through this morning. Now you’ll have your (almost) full set of teeth.
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March 26, 2015
We are almost finished with day 1 of official potty training, and you have done outstanding! You’ve peed on the toilet 6 times for 1 jelly bean each, with no pee accidents yet. You did have a poop accident in your little bee training pants, which I had a feeling was going to happen. You’ve seemed afraid to try to poop on the toilet up until now, so I’m not surprised at all that the first day resulted in a turd in your undies. But this was way better than I ever expected. We are so proud of you!!
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April 7, 2015
Well it has been a pretty monumental week for you, my dear. Last Friday (today’s Tuesday), Daddy put together your big girl bed, and you started sleeping on it on your crib mattress, since we don’t get your new twin mattress until today. You’ve done amazingly well! Only a couple sneak outs, but it’s much better than I expected.
Then yesterday, I got you 2 new pairs of training pants, since your trial-and-error period with regular underwear expired after I cleaned pee off the floor more times than I preferred. Once you put those on yesterday, you had zero accidents, and you even pooped on the toilet all by yourself last night after coming out of your room after going to bed and telling Daddy you had to pee! I was absolutely shocked. Until now, you’ve just sat on the potty seat and screamed every time I’ve thought you had to poop, then put it in your diaper at either nap or bedtime. I about fell over when Daddy said you pooped in there all by yourself (he had left the bathroom, so you were literally in there alone to do the work). So today I decided to press my luck – put your training pants on directly after your nighttime diaper this morning, you wore them all the way until nap time with pees on the toilet and no accidents, you wore them in the car twice for the very first time, and we even had to go to a store and you had them on. But here’s the best part – after peeing in the toilet before nap you came out after just a minute saying you had to pee. I asked if you meant poop, you said yes, I put you on there then left the bathroom like Daddy’s trick, and sure enough, out came poop! Excellent. So back to nap we went, then you came out another minute later. I totally didn’t believe you this time when you said you had more pee, but I put you on the seat anyway. Within seconds more poop shot out, followed by pee! You have no idea how proud I am of you, especially now that you know it’s ok to both poop and pee on the toilet. Yesterday I tried counting with you to kind of settle you on there and see how long it took to go, and already you don’t even want counting – you just do it all by yourself. And I can tell how proud and excited you are, too. It’s so fun to watch you get so happy! We don’t even need jelly bean bribes anymore, either!
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April 22, 2015
I hope to all high heavens that I’m not jinxing anything by putting this out into the universe, but dare I say you’re potty trained?!? Last Friday (today’s Wednesday) your new package of My Little Pony underwear arrived because you’d been doing such a great job going on the toilet and even telling us when it was time, and I honestly don’t remember how long it’s been since you’ve had an accident. (please don’t let me jinx it, please don’t let me jinx it!) You are even going full naps in underwear and have kept your overnight diaper dry many times. We won’t go diaper-less at night for quite a while, but that’s still a good sign. You have absolutely no idea how proud of you I am and how happy I am that we actually accomplished this before your little brother or sister is born! And you did it all at the same time as leaving a crib and sleeping in a real twin bed, too! You are an amazement, my sweet baby girl, and I love you so very, very much.
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May 13, 2015
You have been such a fun little buddy these weekday mornings while Della’s at school, I’m actually going to miss them when they’re gone. Because come summer, all 3 of you will be home with me, then next school year it’ll be you and the baby when Della starts full-day school. For as worried as I was about how I was going to handle 3 hours alone with you every day, I feel ridiculous that that was even a worry at all. You are the best – you play by yourself or watch Sesame Street or just follow me around as I do stuff. And we have such lovely conversation. 🙂 I love you, my sweet baby girl.
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June 14, 2015
We may have entered the realm of full-on potty trained-ness! For the past couple nights you’ve been wearing training pants to bed instead of a diaper, after keeping your overnight diapers dry for the better part of a couple weeks. Congratulations, my dear! I am so excited that you are out of diapers!
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June 22, 2015
We walked to a beer garden that’s down the bike path from our house yesterday after naps, and Daddy took his music and little speaker along to listen to while we were there. At one point shortly before we left, Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” came on and you sang along to some of the lyrics perfectly with zero prompting from anyone! Daddy and I were utterly amazed. I love that you guys are actually learning music.
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July 28, 2015
I thought you were going to be our next urgent care patient yesterday. As we were getting ready for nap time, you came into your room starting to cry and telling me you couldn’t get the orange thing out of your nose. I knew instantly what you were talking about. You had shoved a tiny orange ball up there, and it was now lost. Awesome. I was afraid we were going to have to call Daddy to have him come home from work to go to the hospital. Thankfully that never transpired, because I was able to get you to stop sniffing long enough to blow it out your nose. Gheesh.
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July 30, 2015
You are such a character. Yesterday you walked over to between the coffee table and couch in the living room, told me you were going to hide under the couch, then somehow curled your legs backward and slid under the couch. Not only was it just funny how you announced your hiding spot, but the way you so smoothly contorted your body in such an odd manner was almost serpent like. You are such a goof, and I love you and your gigantic blue eyes so much.
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August 27, 2015
You have the ability to make me madder than anything in this world, but then when I look at you with your amazingly huge blue eyes, adorable little lisp, and cherubic face with rosy cheeks, my enraged heart can’t help but melt. There’s something simply enchanting about you, and I just can’t believe how much I love you guys. Also, the way you say “little girl” is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. It comes out sounding more like “wittle gayul.”
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September 10, 2015
You, my love, are hysterical. This morning you woke up and immediately wanted to put your pink ballerina tutu leotard on over your pj’s for breakfast. You also put it back on over your clothes for the day. So awesome.
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September 17, 2015
Big doings here – you officially moved from the high chair to the booster seat at the meal table 2 nights ago. Movin’ on up…
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September 29, 2015
You had your first official dentist appointment today, and you were so excited. You loved it! And your teeth look great. Fun, fun!
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October 5, 2015
I know this doesn’t even need to be said, but you are something else. You are currently setting up all your dolls and stuffed animals in a line in the dining room to be your audience “to listen up when you say 1, 2, 3” (your words). You have a row of little foam toys lined up across the room and your Lana stool is out. You have been standing on your stool, clearing your throat and saying “Ladies and Gentlemen,” saying “setting the stage, setting the stage,” reciting the Humpty Dumpty rhyme, then jumping off the stool over the line of foam toys. I could just watch you for days.
Also, your new thing is to say “so” when you start sentences. For example, “So this is my Humpty Dumpty wall.” I always try to figure out where you guys pick up these things.
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October 21, 2015
Happy 3rd birthday, my sweet baby girl!! All day I kept thinking back to this night 3 years ago and just can not believe that that tiny little bundle has brought us all the way here to today and the indescribable girl you have become. You are simply the most amazing child I have ever known, and just in recent weeks you have grown so much, it’s incredible. Our lives are so much better for having you in them, and I will never be able to thank you enough for that. I love you to the stars and back!
And since I’m actually writing this the day after your birthday, I have 2 funny stories from yesterday. At lunch you said, “This is the best birthday banana ever!” Then last night, while putting together your new Lego set with Daddy and Della, you said, “Mama, I love love love love love tiny things. Lana loves tinies!” You are the best.
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November 4, 2015
I’ve said it a million times and I’m sure I’ll say it approximately 100 million more, but you, little one, are the biggest character I have ever known. The other day you kept saying, “So what’s the big deal with Halloween?” Say what? First of all, where did you hear that “So what’s the deal with…” and second of all, you don’t even know what that means, do you? I said what? You loved Halloween with dressing up like a ladybug and getting all that candy! Your response was well yeah, but my hands were so freezing. Ha! You really are something else. Then tonight, as I was putting Morrison to bed, I heard you out in the dining room watching Della color a picture for her teacher and saying, “All these stickers are making me so crazy!” What the hell?? You weren’t even playing with stickers, so I have no idea what you were talking about. You are so weird! But I love it, and I honestly have no words for how much I love you. You just fill my soul with so much joy I want to explode, even though sometimes you drive me so crazy I feel like my head’s going to explode. I wouldn’t trade you for the world, though, my sweet baby girl.
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November 13, 2015
You are literally growing before my eyes. Within a matter of the past couple days, you have become able to reach the faucet and soap dispenser while standing on the stool at the bathroom sink to wash your hands all by yourself. Not to say that I don’t enjoy you being able to do that task without my help, but I really wish you and your siblings would stay my babies forever!
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November 16, 2015
You and your love of tinies. This morning you were washing your hands after you’d gone to the bathroom, and I was in feeding Morrison before his nap. You were very quiet and taking a long time, so I was afraid you were getting hand lotion all over the place since you like to put that on now when you’re finished washing. You said you were just washing your hands, so I finished up with your brother. Once he was in bed I came in to check on you, and sure enough, you were still just washing your hands. With the tiniest stream of water I have ever seen. You said, “I love tiny things.” Yes, yes you do, my incredible daughter.
Also, Nigh-Night. The way you frantically search the house for him when you need him cracks me up. This morning you wanted him while you were watching Dinosaur Train on PBS, and you ran around the house, twinkle-toe stepping from room to room until you found him on Della’s bed. You obviously dropped him there when you went in your bedroom to get your slippers earlier in the morning. It is simply adorable how much you love that monkey. And I particularly love that he’s still bigger than about half your little body. I know the day is fast approaching when he will seem so small to you, so I’m trying to cherish these days when he’s still big and you’re still little and etch them into my memory forever.
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November 19, 2015
Here are your stats from your 3-year checkup last night:
- Weight: 32.4 lbs (66.63%)
- Height: 39″ (88.69%)
- BMI: 15 kg/m2 (27.15%)
- Blood pressure: 105/59
- Heart murmur is pretty much gone.
Next visit – 4 years of age. Then come the kindergarten shots. Uh-oh.