About to Turn Three!

Lucky girl! Katelyn won this firetruck at a raffle at Bryan's company picnic this weekend. This is her in the hoola-hoop contest (she's wearing her witch costume) and she cheated...just held the hoola hoop and wiggled around inside. :-)

Katelyn turns 3 on Saturday. One on hand, I love how much she talks and things that come out of her mouth. She gets so excited about simple things and loves to shout out "oh goody!" and "I just can't believe it!" and it can be so sweet. When we drive, she tells me she wishes for green lights and sings along with songs. She's become an ABBA fan and knows which U2 cd I put in the stereo, and just can't get enough of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." I love her sweet prayer at night "Dear God, Thank you for making the world. Amen." And when I add to her prayers and list people for special blessings, she turns to me and says, "That's so nice, mommy." Oh, this is such a sweet age. This time last year I was worried. Worried she wasn't speaking nearly enough and worried about her ever-present digestive issues and lack of weight gain. I wondered when she would be able to have a conversation with me and when some of this food would actually stick to her ribs. I worried we would never find friends like we had in Gainesville. Now, fast forward a year later and Katelyn doesn't stop talking, her stomach issues have been resolved, and we've met some wonderful people down here. It's a great time in our lives. And 3 is a fun age....

Mostly.

Except lately Katelyn has started telling lies. Obvious lies. Big lies. When we told her no more bounce house at Bryan's company picnic, she ran over to the bounce house and told the woman guarding it, "my mommy said yes," and started yanking off her shoes as fast as she could. I grabbed her before she could climb in and Bryan put her in time out. About 15 min. later, she ran off again. I found her climbing a slide and asked her what she was doing over there. "Daddy said I could slide." Daddy never told her she could go over there. She also started spitting in our faces and on food. That lasted about a day. Suddenly, she refused to sit on the potty again and we were back to square one. Melt downs in the bathroom, kicking and screaming when asked to sit on the potty. Luckily, today she was right back on track. We are learning 3 has it's own set of challenges and we have to be on our game all the time. I keep thinking this is such a tough age, but then I remember the newborn stage was no picnic...hating the bottle, not nursing well, sleepless nights, c-section recovery...that was not easy. Crawling was not easy...getting into every thing, not wanting to be contained, everything in the mouth. Walking was tough...not being able to deal with steps, but not wanting to stay away from them, reaching and grabbing and breaking things, starting to hate the stroller....I know this too shall pass and I know despite it's challenges (some days I'm in tears, not knowing if I'm doing the right thing), I know EVERY stage is an absolute blessing and is full of wonderful memories. It all goes by so fast. I know I'll be laughing about her first lies one day and the crazy outfits she insists on wearing. 3 years ago, I prayed for a safe delivery, and a healthy baby. God answered my prayers then, and continues to.

Whoa...this post was way longer than intended!!