THREE Years Old

I love your free-spirited ways and how you wanted to wear wolf ears the morning of your birthday.

Your last night as a two year old. Yes, Mama teared up.

My Haven Girl,

You just turned 3 and sometimes I have to remind myself of that because you are close in size to Anna and always interacting with her, so it seems like you are older. Your three year old self is free spirited, independent and affectionate. Your independence is both a blessing and a challenge. You are very self-sufficient and are more of the ask forgiveness not permission type. Anna is the opposite, so I'm not used to it quite yet. For instance, the other day your sippy cup broke and I found you with big scissors and wads tape trying to fix it. Love your resourcefulness, but it isn't always the safest. :)

You really know how to make someone feel good about themselves. You are always telling me and daddy that you love us “the best”. When you and Anna are playing, I have overheard you say “I love you Anna” then give her a hug. You also always pick flowers and bring them to me. You still really like for Daddy to hold you and you always ask for us to lay with you for a long time at bedtime. You never let us forget to give you a hug and a kiss.

 

 

You have such an imagination! You can play for long periods of time with little animal and doll figurines making up all kinds of scenarios. They can get very dramatic too! You can almost always be found with one of those little figurines in your hand. I find them all over the house positioned and lined up in the funniest places, like inside of several pairs of shoes.

You had your first movie obsession with Frozen! Anna LOVED it too, but you took it to a whole other level. Six months later, it is finally wearing off. Everyday after you first saw the movie, you wanted to wear a cape like Elsa, so we tied your lovie blankets around your neck. You wore them so much, that many of them ripped. You and your sister memorized every single song and sang them nonstop on somedays. You loved getting up on the fireplace mantel and performing them. My favorite was you singing "Wet It Go" since you are still working on the "L" sound. It was the sweetest thing to watch you and Anna act out different scenes, especially the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” song. One of you would play Elsa inside the room and the other would be Anna on the other side of the door. Then you would switch.

Princess Elsa

Right as you turned 3, potty training clicked for you. You started showing signs just before you turned two because of seeing Anna, so I thought potty training would be so quick and easy. Maybe I thought just watching Anna would be enough and I didn't put enough effort into it at my end. You wore more pullups than I ever said I would allow (funny the things you think are absolutes before you become a parent). Anyway, one year later and you are accident free!

 

While Anna and your cousins are your main buddies, you had two little friends in Fort Worth who you grew up with since birth.  Emilynn and Lily were born just a couple months before you and you saw them every week at church.  Since their mamas are my good friends too, we often saw them at other times in the week and you and Emilynn went to school together.  She was the main friend you would talk about from school.  The plan is to keep in touch with them so you guys can continue to grow up together!

Hearing you pray is just about the sweetest thing. Everytime you start a prayer you say “it's wonderful God that...”. When daddy broke his leg and we were praying for him often, you said your same prayer, “it's wonderful God that...daddy broke his leg”. It gave us a laugh and we all new what your heart was trying to express. You love listening to Bible stories and wanted to hear David and Goliath everynight for awhile. Although you are still young and small, may you be mighty with God just like David was. You've also really started to ask questions about what different words mean. The last word you asked about was soul, that was a hard one for mommy to explain!

What you do when you are being a little shy.

Stats:

Height - 38.5 ~ 71% 

Weight - 35 lbs 3oz ~ 80%

 

 

Haven's first interview at age 3:

 

  Goodness you are so loved our precious Haven!

5 Years Old

Your last night as a four year old. (I choke up everytime I take one of these pics.)

You woke up as a beautiful FIVE year old.

I know, I am shocked that you are already five too!

Oh Anna,

You are five and I wish I had the time to write down all the special things about you during this age.  I will try to hit some of the highlights.

        

What really stands out to me when I reflect on you is how much you love interacting with people.  You just love being with someone to talk to, sing to, ask questions to or tell stories to.  Even during your daily quiet time, you role play with stuffed animal and dolls talking almost the whole time.  Your still prefer to be whereever I am, following me around the house sometimes doing chores alongside me and talking to me the whole time.  I get teary thinking about not having my little buddy with me between 8 and 3 while you are at school.

On your birthday you requested that we have tea time.

Another thing that immediately comes to mind is how much you love learning.  You enjoyed your little preschool, but you really loved Museum School.  You soaked up every bit of information they taught you those 2 hours each week and retaught it to Haven and I.  You continue to be drawn to animal books and shows.  You tell me things like "I wish I were a female bird so I could watch the pretty male birds dance for me".  God's creation will continue give you a lifetime of learning little one!

Your ability to focus at your age sometimes takes me by surprise.  The other day you wanted to learn to play chess with Daddy and I think you guys played for 2 hours straight!  You have also gotten interested in Legos and will play with them for long stretches at a time.  You definitely like to follow rules and directions, so you follow each page of the Lego directions to a tee.  For your birthday, I took you to Target to pick out a new Lego set.  We started by looking on the aisle with all the pink and purple Princess and My Little Pony sets, but you didn't want any of those and picked a knight castle on the next aisle.

 

Thank you for making me sit down and play legos too!

You are so in love with your brother and sister!  You and Haven have your run-ins for sure and the claws can really come out, BUT you enjoy each others company more times than not.  You pretend play so well together and while most of the time you are coming up with the ideas, we have been working on asking Haven for suggestions on what to play.  You are doing a good job of tying to be intentional about thinking of others first.  She sometimes copies the things you say and do and you are so good about not getting annoyed with her.  You are also pretty good about including her when you are playing with a friend your age and she wants to tag along.  You still tell people "this is my baby sister".  You love Caleb just as much and are constantly going over to him and giving him big hugs or picking him up.  You can make him smile so easily and are helpful with entertaining him if I need time to finish something. 

 

You had what could be considered your first little crush. There was a boy named Benjamin in your preschool class and he was your favorite friend to play with. You talked about him everyday. The funny thing is, this year you played with the boys in your class more than the girls. I think it was because they would play Wildkratz with you. :) Once when I went to pick you up, you were waiting and holding Benjamin's hand. He has a summer birthday so he was the oldest, tallest boy in the class and you always tell me that you like to play with older boys and girls. Since we moved, he is your penpal and you have exchanged a few letters.

You and Benjamin at your school performance.

Perhaps the most special thing about your 5 year old self is your love for the Lord and how your mind is starting to wrap itself what that entails.  Since you love learning, you enjoy hearing stories from the Bible and listen to them every night as you go to sleep.  You are starting to do more than just memorize the facts of the stories and are starting to see themes emerge.  The other day you mentioned that there are lots of different brothers that fight in the Bible which led to an interesting conversation. I love to hear your honest prayers to Jesus about whatever is on your little mind.  Sometimes if we are talking about a sad situation, you just start praying in the middle of the conversation.  I pray you never lose that sensitivity to what the Spirit prompts in you.

Stats:

Weight -  38 lbs. 3 oz. ~ 51%

Height - 42.75 in ~ 37%

This is the third year in a row I have given her the same interview.  It is fun to look back on the old ones and see how some of the answers have stayed the same.

7 & 8 Months

 Sweet boy!  These couple of months were a blur because we sold our house in Fort Worth and moved to Austin.  You were a trooper through it all and remained your laid back self amidst the chaos.  As hard as moving was with 3 little ones, I couldn't have asked for a better baby during that time.  

At 7 months you started sitting up alone.  It was such a sweet phase because you just stayed in one place so content with a few toys.  It is also a fun phase because you sit up in the bathtub and in the grocery cart.  Taking just you on errands on Tuesdays when the girls were at preschool was so easy!

Since you had been eating for a couple months, I had given you many things and you loved it all.  One little quirk about you is that whenever you finish nursing or eating, you scream and throw yourself back like you are having a mini tantrum.  You just do this for a few seconds and then get your thumb and you are happy again.  Your sisters love to feed you puffs and sneak some for themselves while they are at it. 

 

Our house also looked like a daycare because you used about every baby apparatus including the swing, bouncer, johnny jumper and excersaucer.  I rotated you around to keep you happy while I was packing.

 

 You are usually just in a onesie, but I like dressing you up like a little teenager for church, Adidas and all.

 

By 8 months you started developing separation anxiety.  I tried leaving you in the nursery at church a couple times and you wouldn't have it for more than a few minutes.  You are happy to go with people you know well though.

When you wake up from nap or in the morning, I will find you sitting up in your crib often sucking your thumb.  It is so precious to see you take your thumb out and open you whole mouth in a big smile when you see me coming to get you.  

Your sisters are very entertaining and I've noticed you have fear of missing out if you aren't in the same room as them.  You also want to stay up as late as they do at night!

 

 You are still snuggly and occasionally still fall asleep on me. As cuddly as you are, you are equally playful and active. I really try to soak up these times of snuggling and playing because I know they how fleeting they are. 

 

 

 I love you my little bubbers!