Sunday, May 22, 2011

3 years and 3 months...

Today Lia checked off the first quarter of her third year. Good grief. This is just going by entirely waaay too fast. In trying to keep with tradition, I thought that I would continue with a quarterly update of her life for our family records. I have truly begun to see the transition from toddler to little girl these past three months. She really is beginning to "grow up" in so many ways. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. Lia finally figured out how to crawl out of her crib and onto the stool that is next to it (I know, I know...how lucky am I that I have a child that never even attempted this until after her third birthday?). As a result, we now just keep the gate down all of the time so that she doesn't hurt herself when climbing in and out. We are also planning on transitioning her into her first, big-girl-bed this coming weekend. That's a big deal in the Hartland.
2. In addition to climbing out of her crib alone, Lia has also begun climbing out of the tub by herself which both my back and I LOVE!
3. The biggest milestone of them all is that Lia has been potty trained for an official nine weeks as of today! Hooray! I really thought sometimes that I would never see the day. Although we are working on #2 and are still wearing pull-ups to bed, I am just thrilled that I no longer have to mess with cloth diapers!
4. Since I am big lake and ocean girl, Lia had never been in a pool before going to Hawaii last month. But it was most definitely love at first sight. She LOVES pools and became very confident jumping in and swimming around in it alone with her life jacket on. It will be interesting to see how she behaves back in a lake this coming summer.
5. Lia's imagination has simply taken off. I can find her several times a day pretending that she is a certain character from a movie or book while in the bath or her crib or around the house or yard. She sings their songs, quotes their lines, reenacts their scenes, and fights their villains. It's quite adorable. Case in point, Ron and I were out working in the yard the other day while Lia was playing in her little house. I looked up at one point to see her "sweeping" off the trees with her toy broom while singing "Whistle While you Work" from the Snow White movie.
6. Ever since she spent quite a bit of time coloring with the "triplets" in Hawaii, Lia has really become interested in drawing and coloring on her own. She repeatedly will ask me what I want her to draw and then will set out "drawing" a picture of that item in a very serious manner (even though it looks nothing like it). She also has fallen in love with scissors and thoroughly enjoys cutting up a piece of paper into millions of tiny pieces.
7. Lia has fallen in love with a few new movies since she turned three. The top two contenders would have to be Peter Pan and Monsters Inc.
8. In keeping up with her fascination with the "princi," Lia has become absolutely fascinated with any piece of clothing that "goes down to the floor." She loves dresses and skirts that are that long and even requests that her towel is wrapped around her in such a way that it touches the floor as she walks from the bathroom to her bedroom each night after her bath.
9. This is one is my least favorite: Lia is not obeying us as well as she used to. Quite often, she will simply state, "NO," in a rude tone of voice in response to a request and refuse to do it without some prodding. We now threaten her with a time-out on a daily basis to get her to do something she doesn't want to do. Me no likey this one.
10. Lia's individual prayers have become quite entertaining as of late. When she agrees to give a blessing on the food or say her prayer before bedtime (which isn't every day), she insists on doing it all alone...and this is how it usually goes: "Dear Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus Christ. We thank thee for the food. Amen." She covers most of the bases, right?

Overall, Lia is still one of the most pleasant, happy, bright, and well-behaved little people I have encountered in my life. She is such a joy to be around and truly my sidekick in almost everything I do. I am so grateful that she is my daughter and that she is in my life. With all of our fertility struggles these past two years, I honestly don't know where I would be without her (probably in a room with padded walls). I love you, Lia!

No comments:

Post a Comment