Bye-bye baby

            So….. as I mentioned previously my “baby” is almost three years old.  I am not at all sure how three years can fly by in the blink of an eye but here we are with another “big girl” in the house and no baby anywhere to be found.  Our littlest one is almost passed that age when everything that comes out of her mouth is funny and every new development and discovery is adorable.   We really only have a few more months of “Awww, that was so cute,” before she has completely mastered the English language and honed all her gross motor skills to pre-schooler perfection, leaving behind her immature toddler jumps with only one foot actually leaving the ground and the awkward arms-pumping run that still doesn’t get her anywhere near as fast as her siblings.

            For now, I am enjoying what is left of toddlerhood.  I love that she uses the “ya” sound for words that have “th” in them.  She says “I luff yat,” for “I love that,” and “I don’t yike yose” when she means, “I don’t like those”.  And there is a lot she doesn’t “yike”.  She is a very picky eater, as so many two year olds are.  Her favorite foods include “drawberries (strawberries), booberries (blueberries), saw-me (salami), and cereo (cereal)” and she will eat little else.    She especially dis-yikes beans, tomatoes, and potatoes.  

            I also love that she now plays happily with her older brothers and sisters, joining them in their pretending games, their Lego play, and even their favorite past-time-- movie quoting.  It is quite impressive how many movie quotes she has memorized in her little life, especially considering I don’t allow that much screen time.  I hope this is an indication of how well she’ll do when it comes time to memorize her times tables.  :)

           

            She loves shoes- boots, flip-flops, sandals- you name it, and has asked for “barkly shoose” (sparkly shoes) for her birthday.  She has come a long way with her swimming lessons (or as she calls them, her as “fwimming” lessons).  She knows how to spell her own name or, at least knows which letters are "hers".  She loves books and has a few of her favorites memorized so she can “read” to us when we get to the point that we have read so many books to her, we simply cannot utter another word.  At least, she occasionally uses her memorization skills for something worthwhile.

            Anyway, she really is still adorable to us and so, so lovable despite the fact that this past year has truly been the “terrible twos” full of temper tantrums, attitude, and stubbornness.  She has spent an awful lot of time in timeout, or what we know around here as “the whiny kid zone”, but her trips there are getting fewer and farther between.  

It is amazing how little by little, day by day, our children mature before our very eyes, starting out so small and helpless and quickly becoming their own little selves- with their own ideas and their own independence and their own ability to express themselves.