Charlotte,
It's hard to believe that today is your THIRD birthday! We have had such a fun day already and are looking forward to celebrating you some more this afternoon and tonight! There will be plenty of posts dedicated to all the celebrating of YOU that we did but today I want to remember what you were like when you turned three.
These days you are a hoot to be around. We never know what's going to come out of your mouth! And we have be extra careful to not say anything that we wouldn't want you to repeat because chances are it will come out at some point in the future! One night you even started repeating the letters that I was spelling to your Daddy!
You have a really good grasp verbally on what's going on. We've heard from lots of people how well you speak for your age. We still have to remind you to say 'Please' and 'Thank you' sometimes but sometimes I still forget that so I think that's normal! You can describe most anything you see and our only problems seem to come when you are trying to describe something to ask more about it and I can't understand your context clues to figure out what you're talking about. Once we settle on what you're talking about though we're usually golden.
All of your verbal skills and your constantly working mind means that you're to the stage of asking a lot of questions. At the end of the day it can become tiring to answer question after question but we're trying hard to remember that that's how you learn and answer you as best as we can. You want to know everything about everything though so we're having to brush up on some of our knowledge so that we can help you!
You still love Luca and he is still very sweet to you. He still steals toys sometimes and we are always careful to put things away so that he can't get them, but for the most part y'all have a wonderful relationship. When we walked in the door this morning and I let him out of his room you ran right up to him to give him a hug and said, "Luca is my BEST friend!" One night you even asked if Luca could sleep with you but we know that Luca wouldn't stay in one spot so we nixed that for now. Maybe when you're a little older.
You are all about music and singing. You sing songs constantly and will use just about anything to make music. You especially love to dance to music and will put on interpretive dances to any kind of music! You also have your favorite songs although you wear yourself out on them (kind of like your Mommy). We try to only listen to Christian music and over the past few months some of your favorites have been "Our God" by Chris Tomlin, "When the Saints" by Sara Groves, "You are Good" by Nichole Nordeman and Erin O'Donnell, and "Hold on to Jesus" by Erin O'Donnell with Jamie Long. For a few weeks you were asking for one of those songs every single time that you got in the car. Thankfully, you are now content to just listen to what I have playing!
With James' arrival we transitioned from me singing to you just before you go to sleep to Daddy finishing our bedtime routine. Our bedtime routine starts with picking up the den and then you pick out three books to read. We then head upstairs to put on jammies and wash your face and brush your teeth. Then you have to pick from three sets of pj's. After you're all ready for bed we sit on the end of your bed and we pray. You have recently started saying your own prayers but usually we just listen as Daddy prays. Then you sit on my lap and we talk about what you're thankful for. Then I sing "Soft Kitty" (from The Big Bang Theory) and "Jesus loves Charlotte." I head downstairs (you always tell me to do the dishes!) and Daddy lays in bed and finishes tucking you in. He loves getting to spend that time with you so he's more generous with his singing than I ever was. I know that y'all have a set routine of songs but I don't know it. Some that I know you usually sing are "Do Re Me" and "When the Saints Go Marching In". I think Daddy lets your request songs too. And then you end with another "Soft Kitty"/"Jesus loves Charlotte".
Speaking of James, you have done great transitioning to being a big sister. You love James and love playing with him. You give him hugs and kisses and tell him good night before he goes to bed. You are great about picking up his toys while I change his diaper and put him to bed (I think you, correctly, know that if you do that we'll have more play time with just us). You get a kick out of his squeals and his babbling and are currently enjoying trying to teach him sign language. You are a great big sister and such a wonderful helper. You have taken the decrease in attention beautifully and haven't really seemed to phased by it!
One fun thing that you get to do because of James is spend more time on the iPad. When he first came home you would sit in our room with me while I fed him, but once he got older it got to be too distracting for him. At that point we decided that we would let you play apps while I fed James. As soon as I say that I'm going to feed James you ask if you can play apps. You love playing with your apps and we have been so impressed with all that you've done. You even taught yourself all of your letters with the alphabet apps that you have! We hardly ever turn the tv on anymore (only to was Praise Baby on rare occasions and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on even rarer ones) so I think you enjoy your 30 minutes of app time a day.
You still love school and were sad last night when I said that it was going to be Tuesday but I told you that it was summer and you couldn't go to school. I know that you will be excited to go back in the fall and am hopeful that you won't be too upset when Mrs. Bonnie and Mrs. Julie are teaching James' class and not yours. You will be starting actual pre-school in the fall which seems unbelievable to me. We have been talking up your new teacher for months now and as of the end of the year you seemed like you were excited to be going to her class. We hope that that remains in August!
We're a little concerned about you going to a new class because of your personality. While you are wild and crazy at home and in situations that you are familiar with, new ones aren't your cup of tea. You don't like entering situations where you don't know what's going to happen and having new people in charge of you while Daddy and I leave you is your worst nightmare. We try to talk you through the new things that we are going to do and, if given enough information, you tend to do better adjusting. We know that this is just your personality and are always so proud of you to see you conquer something new.
One thing that you love are flowers. You have an amazing ability to recall names of plants and love pointing out different varieties to us. Just this morning you pointed out Memma's Lantana and I didn't even know what it was! Some types of flowers that you love are hydrangea's (you call everything a snowball hydrangea), daisies, and any purple flower.
Your imagination has really kicked into overdrive over the last few months. You have had a slew of imaginary friends include a friend named "Benita" that showed up for a few days. One of your favorites to play with is "My Mary" who is your imaginary version of cousin Mary (seen above). You felt a connection with Mary when you both skinned your knees about the same time and since then your Mary goes a lot of places with you. You couldn't have been more excited last week when she came to visit you in person! You were able to play ball with her and not have to run after the ball that you threw because she wasn't really there!
Your favorite friends though have been the football players, cheerleaders and band. They are constants around our house and go everywhere with us. Often we find them running in front of our car as we're driving and you yell "Hustle up boys!" to them to get them to run faster. Your favorite friend is Marquis Maze (who you've never met) because he was featured so heavily in the Championship game coverage because he got hurt. Recently we've been encouraging your love of Mr. Barrett Jones (who you have met). You were actually pretty sad that he didn't make your birthday party last weekend because you said you texted him during your nap and he said that he was going to come. We assured you that he would have come if he wasn't busy playing football!
Your love of fashion hasn't waned at all as you've grown. You insist on picking out your own clothes every day and recently have decided that you need options every day. You will pull out five (it has to be five) options and lay them across the bed before asking me which ones I like. Despite the ones that I tell you I like, you still pick whichever you want. You have favorite outfits and wear them over and over again. And, mercy, if you see one of those outfits in the dirty clothes hamper it will be an all out fit because you want them to already be clean again so that you can wear them!
You still love jewelry and getting "fancy" thanks to Fancy Nancy. Your favorite color of purple is reflected in your wardrobe choices but you have a lot of other favorites that aren't purple. You love twirly dresses and still love shoes. Your favorite pair are a pair from Target that are tan with a purple flower on them. You call them your "Fabulous and Cute" shoes. You are not short on spunk!
And speaking of purple, if this picture doesn't show how much you love it I don't know what will. It is heads and tails above any other color in your mind. You want purple EVERYTHING and would be happy if everything in the world was purple. Those pom pom's are pretty much your favorite thing ever because not only are they purple but they're also sparkly which is the winning combination!
Most of the time you are a really good eater. As shown here, your favorites are, of course, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies but you also will eat any fruit that we put in front of you. You still hardly ever touch vegetables other than potatoes and sometimes those are hard to get you to eat. You love cereal for breakfast and are really good at eating it in milk. On school days I would give you cheese grits or oatmeal too and you love those. We have started transitioning out of giving you a mid-morning snack because most of the time when I ask if you want one you say no. Except when you're at Memma and Papa's of course! I found out a few months ago that Papa had been making your snack traps with chocolate graham crackers with marshmallows! No wonder you wouldn't let me fix your snacks when we were all at their house!
Lunches at our house are pretty varied but you love peanut butter and jelly with strawberry jam. We love cutting it into shapes with cookie cutters. You still love mac mac cheese and also eat a lot of ham and turkey. I get you a snack when you get up from your nap and you love goldfish (any kind) in it along with multi-grain Cherrio's. We also make sure and put either Craisins or Raisins in there too but sometimes you eat around those. At dinner you will usually try most anything I fix although you recently haven't wanted your pasta with any sauce on it. Your favorite dinner might be pizza or hot dogs which should be expected I guess. Overall, I'm very thankful that you eat as well as you do!
You still love your stuffed animals and don't care one way or another about baby dolls. Your "favorite" consistently changes but you have loved Fluffy (purple poodle) since Christmas and Sandy (white lab) has been a favorite for years. You sleep with as many animals as I will let you but are pretty good about replacing animals when you want to bring new ones into your bed. Most of the top of your bed is made up of a huge dog named Big Barkley that you got when James was born. You don't use him as a pillow but you could if you wanted to.
In the past year we transitioned you to a double bed with rails and eventually took down the rails. You did a great job with never getting out of the bed after we put you in it which was a real blessing. Now you have gotten responsible enough that if you need to go to the bathroom during your nap we let you get up and go by yourself and get back in bed. We are still putting you in a pull up at night so we haven't crossed that bridge during bedtime yet but you are good to not abuse that privilege during the day.
You love helping me and I love letting you. You always tell me not to do the laundry until you get up so that you can help me with it. And you have to be on your stool next to me when I make dinner so that you can help. I love the times that we get to spend doing things like that because I feel like we don't get to spend a lot of just you and me time. I hope that those will be times that you will remember as you grow older.
Charlotte, I can't even begin to explain how much we love you. You are such a joy and your Daddy and I thank God every day for you. We are so privileged to get to watch you grow each and every day. Your personality is so much fun and we love getting to cheer you along as you grow. We can't wait to see what God has in store for you over the next few days, months, and years. Whatever it is we know that it will be BIG and that you will be fantastic!
We love you so much!
Happy Birthday!
love Mommy
*Birth day, Year One, Year Two
No comments:
Post a Comment