Three

Well, better late than never, right?
So here it is.  I'm going to fill in things that have happened in the last month, simply because I don't remember what happened when and frankly, at 3 years, what's a month?

At her 3 year appt. last month she was juuuuust shy of 36" and weighed 27.5 lbs.  She wears 2T clothing and has just graduated to size 7 shoes.  

Sam speaks in full on sentences all.the.time.  Well, ok I might be exaggerating a little.  She sings a lot of the time too.  She'll vary between her own versions of songs and just narrating what we are doing.  Since raising my voice, changing my tone or simply yelling doesn't work to get her to listen, I just break out into song what I'd like her to do and she will at least acknowledge that I'm speaking to her.  A song generally goes something like this, (sort-of to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

"Twinkle twinkle little star, Sam put on your sandals please."
"Mommy mommy mommy why?"
"We are going put-them-on-please."
"Where are we going to go?"
"Trader Joe's let's go now please."

In other oddities, this child is still obsessed with water.  I wish there was a better word for it, but she could very well be a candidate to sprout gills before she dies.

Even though she weaned almost 2 years ago, she'll still ask to nurse.  Talk about guilt!  I tell myself it's because she sees other babies nursing (friends and family) but she'll ask when she's tired or hurt.

Just a few nights ago we decided it was time to night potty train her.  Every night we'd have the conversation,
"Do I have a diaper on?"
"Yes."
"I can go pee-pee in it?"
"Yes."

The first night was awesome.  The second required some additional laundr.  So it's still a work in progress!.

Her other obsessions are being outside, babies and dogs.  We had to change the door handle on our front door AND change the lock.  She also has no fear of dogs.  They can be growling, snarling and pulling at a leash trying to snap her nose off and she'll be fighting me to go give the "puppy a kiss."

On the food end of things, we've decided to stay away from drinking straight cow's milk and dairy ice cream until she's better able to describe her physical ailments better than simply screaming and puking.  And she totally gets why she can't have them.  A simple reminder of "those give you owies in your tummy" deters any interest.  Don't worry, we buy her the $7/pint coconut milk ice cream! 

Other than that, she'll demand to try every food we put on the table.  She'll eat things that I have never liked and eat them by the bowl-full.  The only thing she doesn't like is spicy foods. 

A while back I posted about her putting herself to bed-.  That novelty wore off within a few days and we're back to a longer bed-time routine. 
Oh, the bed-time routine.  I try and approach things with the "she'll sleep if she's tired" attitude and just leave her alone in her room, but that ends up with a SUPER cranky kid in the afternoon.  If I hold her still rock her then she will fall asleep.  But sometimes that can take up to an hour and I'm at my wits-end when she finally does fall asleep. 

Well, this is getting a bit long and wordy, so I'll move onto the birthday day pictures:

a breakfast of threes for the three-year-old

She's most certainly not over the weight-limit, but she's finally hit the height limit for rear-facing.  We made it a b-day event.

She LOVES being able to see the lights change and tell mommy how to drive. 

Teddy grams having a pool party on her cake

She got some old school Polly Pockets.  Believe it or not, she's REALLY good about keeping track of the pieces!  I had to show her how to let her Polly's visit each other before she allowed the different characters to interact.  Quite the literal thinker.  Or would that be OCD?

 Showing off a few gifts- rainboots, crown and Leapfrog game.

Happy Birthday Samantha! We're so glad you finally have hair!  

We'll shoot for pigtails next year.