Annabelle at 3

My baby girl, which is what I still call her a great deal of the time, is a baby no more.  Nor is she a toddler.  The only category that now accurately describes her is Preschooler.  Am I sad about this?  Actually, no!  I believe there is always a morning period for women when they realize that they will no longer mother babies because that is such a unique time in their lives, but that emotion is completely separate from my feelings about Annabelle growing up.  Because, quite frankly, I am really enjoying the girl that she is growing into!

Except for her three-year-old-ness, so let's get that out of the way first.  She, like most three-year-olds, is testing her boundaries on what is acceptable behavior.  She is trying her hand at tantrums and yelling, telling ME how things will go and being blatantly disrespectful.  This is so very out of character for her, and I am confident we will get through this phase.  Honestly, her endurance for tantrums pales in comparison to that of her brother, and she is easily persuaded to move on with life.  Mama is better prepared this time around, as well!

She is developing in areas other than attitude as well.  I am seeing her fine motor skills progress, and I believe her art class is helping a good deal here.  She can almost hold a pencil (crayon) correctly, can peel her own stickers and take the cap to her new chapstick on and off all by herself.

She is artsy.  She does love crafts and painting and coloring, but she also enjoys making things.  And recently she is proving that she really loves to sing as well.  The girl will belt out a tune at the top of her lungs if she is in the right mood.  And I do believe that music can and will play a crucial role in her education - she can remember anything if it is set to music.  This is why she has "known her alphabet" for over a year but still has difficulty identifying any letter other than A.  But that A, every time she sees one she boldly declares, "That says ME!" regardless of its placement in the word or on the sign.

Her hand-eye coordination is not great (sorry hun, you come by the genetically!), but her desire to keep up with Sam is pushing her large motor development full steam ahead.  She is now a pro on her scooter, speeding through the cul-de-sac and even steering and turning.  That has been great for her balance!  She is working on her balance bike and growing in coordination there as well.  She has learned how to climb all kinds of things so that she can reach and do all of the things that Sam can reach and do.  She even figured out how to balance and grip her toes just so on the bathroom cabinet doors so that she can brush her teeth without assistance.

She loves to play babies, which are always "aww, so cute!" and cars.  She likes cooking in her play kitchen, usually making whatever she last ate.  She is stepping into helping me in the real kitchen.  Her pretend play is starting to take better shape as she creates more dialogue to go with her toys.  She can entertain herself for up to an hour, but is happier to be near you, happiest to be played with.  She will endure a great deal of harassment to be included in big brother's endeavors.  She tolerates dress up if that's what everyone else wants to play, but would rather just put on pretty shoes and be done with it.

She mimics everything that Sam does.  She gets upset when she wakes up after he has left for school, pouting that "ahhh, I wanted to see him!"  She asks when its time for him to come home, or if we should go to get him.  She looks to him for direction in her play, in her behavior, in her reactions to what's going on in our home.  She can read him almost as well as I can.  She recently saw a picture of him from his 3-year-old preschool and asked why he was mad in that picture!  This means she is also keenly aware that she must protect her possessions from him, and will boldly, fiercely and angrily do so when required.  Honestly, if she liked to wrestle and he liked to share, they might not need other friends in their lives.

If given adequate time and space she might skip and gallop her way through life.  Too bad she is often being rushed from one thing to another.  She can be goofy and silly and crazy one minute, and calm and collected the next.  You're equally likely to see her spinning in circles and sitting quietly.  She is also developing some hilariously-expressive facials that she enjoys entertaining us with at dinner.

When she is read to she will ask a million questions to go with each page, trying to figure out what each element of the picture means and what each character is doing.  Except when you take her to Friday Readers at Kindergarten.  She knows that she must be quiet at Kindergarten or she won't be allowed back.  Being included at Sam's school is her personal Holy Grail, so that 3-year-old is better behaved than any of the 6-year-olds I read to on those mornings!

She likes her Sunday School class and adores her preschool.  She tolerates her bible study class, which is a step up from where we were in January.  First time she had cried at a drop off in 2.5 years!  She is learning to make friends all on her own and developing sweet little relationships with her people.  

She is a mama's girl more than a daddy's girl, but that has shifted a bit since their trip.  She is growing in her girliness, frequently seeking to have her nails painted or to reapply her "lipstick."  She prefers to have a bow and loves shoes and tutus.  

White Blankie is her precious lovie these days, and fortunately she has 4 that are interchangeable.  She still loves to be sung to at bedtime.  Each night the same, "Be Thou My Vision," Twinkle Twinkle" and "Jesus Loves Me."  And if Daddy is doing the singing, she'll also get "Soft Kitty."  But now she gets the songs in her bed, and often sings along because she recently gave up her paci.  She and I began to talk about it a few weeks ago and decided that after her party we would wrap it up for a baby.  Last Tuesday morning I went to her room to get her up and she boldly handed it to me.  "Lets give this to the baby today."  And that was that.  I am very proud of her grown-up decision!  She had no trouble at night but failed to sleep 6 naps in a row.  Just lots of LOUD singing for a few hours in her bed.  At least she stays put!  Yesterday she finally fell asleep for naptime, so there's hope...

Her Well-Check today proved that she is developing on track, in spite of her inability to identify letters and numbers.  She weighed in at 27.4 pounds fully dressed (17%) and 36.5 inches (38%), giving her a BMI of 14 (12%).  Looks like she has gained 3.5 pounds and 3 inches since last year!  Her 2T clothes are quickly becoming too short so we are moving into 3T.  She wears size 7 shoes but it seems like little girl shoes very by maker as much as women's do, so some of her shoes fit better than others.  Believe it or not, her blood pressure reading came back high.  And it went up with each re-test they did, so we are going back in a month for a blood pressure test.  They aren't worried, but need to verify.

It has been a year of gaining independence for our little lady and she has loved it.  I believe her next year will afford her a great deal of new adventures.  I can't wait to see where it takes her!  She and I have become better buds this year and I'm not willing to give that up any time soon!  I love you Annabelle, happy third birthday!

Annabelle's 3rd Birthdays

Let's get the questions out of the way first, the ones that I have been asked 8 kagillion times this week:
1. Her legal birthday is March 1 in a non-leap year.
2. We celebrate her on both days - my notion is that "when you don't have a special day, might as well have two!"
3. Leap years happen every 4 years, so no, she has not had an "actual" birthday yet.  This one surprised me this year, I thought people knew that!

I do love third birthdays.  They are the first that the child really understands - both what a birthday means AND that the celebration is all about her.  That makes party planning really fun, and really about the KID for the first time in her life (first birthday parties are for the parents.  Well deserved indeed, but not a bit for the kid's benefit.  I've thrown myself two "congratulations on keeping them alive for a year" parties).

Annabelle and I have been prepping for her big days.  We talked about how old she would be in a month (then in two weeks, then next week, etc) and practiced holding up that many fingers.  We discussed her party and who she'd like to invite.  We discussed the use of candles and what type of treat she would like Mommy to bake for her.  By the time her days rolled around, she was amped and ready!

Saturday, February 28 was a fun and busy day!  We left the house before 10am to make it to the Barnyard Bash being hosted by Annabelle's art teacher.  Pony rides, face paint, crafts and cookies, it was basically a second party without her name on it.  She and Sam both bravely rode the ponies, something I'm not sure either of them would have done a year ago.  Annabelle got to go twice, but clearly had way more fun when her brother was along for a ride with her.  I love watching their little relationship develop into friendship.  And Sam, again, was just as into the crafts in the art room as Annabelle was.  For a kid who resisted all things art related as a preschooler, he sure thinks her stuff is pretty cool now!  By the time we left, they were both seriously fancied up for the remainder of our celebrating.

It was straight to Sam's last basketball game from there, and I'd like to think the other team was intimidated by his Leonardo mask.  Then we went out for BBQ with the team - a yummy lunch with cookie cake to celebrate.  I should note that, by this point in the day, Annabelle had consumed 3 donut holes, 8 raspberries, a cookie, one bite of white bread, one bite of corn, one bite of turkey and half a slice of cookie cake.  Yikes.

After of few hours of singing to herself in bed (details on that in my next post), we brought her out to open presents from family.  Poor little unloved child.  She was appreciative of everything, although less enthused by the clothes than in the past.  She did squeel a bit when she opened her "Shooooooesssss!" from Aunt Becky and spent about 5 minutes putting princess lip smackers on both herself and me.  "See, it doesn't hurt!"  And then came the doll house, and both she and big brother had to be dragged away from it every time we needed them to do something for the next few days.

Then it was off to dinner!  We had asked Annabelle which restaurant she would like to go to for her birthday but "the red one!" just wasn't very descriptive.  So Mommy and Daddy selected Rainforest Cafe - as did, apparently, every other family in Katy that was celebrating a birthday that evening.  Honestly, I'm not sure that a single table did not receive a special birthday treat.  Fortunately that did not seem to lesson the level of special-ness for the kids, who thoroughly enjoyed checking out the waterfall, animatronic animals and decor and sucking down their over-priced, character-cup icee's during our 40 minute wait for our food.  It also gave us ample opportunity to verify with Annabelle that she not only wanted a candle on her cupcake (which was so tasteless that none of us would eat it) but that she wanted the full on sparkler.  We showed her three different sparklers to confirm.  And after we all devoured our food, to everyone's great surprise, Annabelle sat boldly, proudly, happily in front of her sparkler while everyone sang to her.

This is no small thing!  Only a few weeks ago she ran to me and buried her face in my shoulder during her friend's party.  Just this week she covered her eyes as I lit the gas stove to boil some water.  The girl's feat of fire is real.  But it appears that her desire to experience all-things-birthday was stronger than her fear.  Because she didn't just enjoy her sparkler, but also the candle on her Mommy-Made Daniel Tiger Cookie Cake we had when we got home.  Blew that candle out on her first try!

Sunday morning I woke her with another Happy Birthday!  And then we all hurried off to church, where she scored an awesome Birthday Balloon in her class.  Then we came home and...hung out.  We did not clean, prep, arrange, decorate or bake.  Annabelle rested, Sam watched a show and did some homework, Chris paid bills and I worked on bible study.  (Annabelle demanded a candle in her lunch, and singing to go with it.)  All this made possible by one very smart decision that I made this year: Outsource Annabelle's Birthday Party.

It came to my attention a few months ago that Miss Debbie, our Art Class Teacher, also hosts birthday parties.  You give her a theme and a check, she does everything, literally.  Everything from printing your invitations to passing out the party favors she purchased.  She does the food, the games, the crafts, the decorations.  We showed up with some "adult snacks" and ourselves.  It was awesome.  She even takes pictures.  Here is the blurb she posted to Facebook to go along with the pictures from our Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood party:   

"It was a beautiful day in Annabelle Tiger’s neighborhood today where all her friends gathered to celebrate her third birthday. The children started the party with arts and crafts and tiger snacks before entering Annabelle’s Neighborhood where the children had some fun, imaginative play making and selling cupcakes in the bakery, shopping at the grocery store, fixing sick creatures at the animal hospital and fishing on a picnic. The day ended with cupcakes and ribbon sticks all for a special little tiger named Annabelle!"

For the record, she once again reveled in the singing to her and put great effort into blowing out the three candles on her cupcake.  That makes for 4 candle adventures in 2 days.  Is she cured, or is this only a birthday reprieve from her phobia?

After a few friends weren't able to come at the last minute, we ended up with about 10 kiddos at the party.  I think everyone had a good time - I know that my two did!  In spite of our lack of work for the party, the four of us returned home exhausted.  Annabelle opened gifts from her friends, we had a snacky dinner and crashed early

After a whole weekend of celebrating I was a bit concerned that my baby girl would wake up on Monday thinking that it was all about her once again.  To the contrary, she woke up and informed me that it was not her birthday anymore, but that she was three now.  And that she still started with an A (there was debate earlier in the week.  She thought that since her number was changing that her letter would, too.  Clearly we have work to do on our letters and number and their meanings).

And now...we have no baby.  We have no toddler.  Our little family is growing up!