Charlotte at 3 years

Here she is, our THREE year old little ballerina!  It is crazy to think that I have spent some portion of every 24 hour period with this girl minus about 5 days over the course of roughly 1,095 days. That's a lot of time together which is why I feel like I can describe her pretty well ; )  She is still a delight to be around even on the roughest of days. On these difficult days, I experience this delight when I continually remind myself that God chose me, not anyone else to be her mommy. He is providing direction for us in how to best love & care for her as she grows & I am SO thankful for that.  There are multiple times during any given day when I look at her and cannot help but smile thinking about who she is & is growing to be. Just for the record, Charlotte needed next to no direction in posing for these pictures...she was just being herself : ) 

Stats:

37 3/4 inches - 65th percentile

33 pounds - 65th percentile

Size 3T-4T clothing

Size 9.5 shoes

Silly goose!

Born to be WILD:

• loves watching worms & froggies outside
• enjoys dancing of any form & to any music
• sings to all sorts of random tunes
• plays a good game of hide & seek (she has gotten much better at staying quiet while hiding)
• can be found jumping off anything she can climb onto
• wrestles her little sis
• any art project ends with Char covered in markers/paint/glue
• rides the roller coaster at Sea World, "sea won" as many times in a row as they will let her
• loves playing games where we make animal sounds
• consumes massive quantities of macaroni & cheese, pancakes, cheese & crackers, broccoli (if she has to pick a veggie)

Busybody:

• learning to use scissors
• loves to paste cut out shapes onto pink paper only
• frequently draws a turtle & a seagull or as she says "eagle" 
• wants to throw, catch and bounce our ladybug ball everyday- can do all three pretty well
• sorts beans really fast
• jumps rather high (at least I think it's high for a 3 year old, ha!)
• turning somersaults with quite the grand start & finish 
• loves to help vacuum (very new thing but I think I like it!)

Heart:

Charlotte is becoming more sensitive to others emotions.  Anytime she sees someone walking alone (like when we are driving in the car) she says "Oh no mommy! Why is he all alone? He is sad!" She also says that about animals.  Jenny's brother & his wife recently adopted a little girl that was born in Florida.  We got to meet her & Charlotte has talked about their family a lot since then. I shared with her about how they asked God for a baby for a long time & had to be very patient then God decided to answer their prayer and gave them a little girl that was from another mommy. She was snuggling with me this morning and out of nowhere said, "I like that baby, her mommy had to wait a long long time then God gave her a baby!"  I think that is evidence of her mind trying to process things we have talked about.  My prayer always is that her heart would be transformed as we share with her about who God is & what He did for her through Jesus & it is through little conversations we have each day, that we can teach her truth.

She is responding to discipline well & after spending sometime thinking well say she is sorry & ask for forgiveness.  I know at this point she may be repeating what she have told her to say but as she grows, the words will have more meaning in her little heart & mind. She loves practicing her catechism questions & is so particular about it. She wants you to read directly from the little yellow book asking her the questions. Then she wants the book so she can ask Eloise all the questions.  That is really entertaining! She asks, gives Eloise a split second to answer & then says the answer followed by "that's right, good job Eloise!" Elo can answer the first one "Who made you?" "don" she exclaims & then giggles. When she gets to the last question she says "Are you ready for your new one Elo? Here it is, it's really hard!" This is exactly what we say to her so it is hilarious to see that she remembers word for word. The cute way she says some of the answers must be recorded. 

Who wrote the bible? Hoe-ee men infired by the hoe-ee ferret (Holy men inspired by the holy spirit)

What is God? God is ferret (God is spirit)

What is spirit? An invis-ble bing who doeset have a body just yike us (An invisible being who doesn't have a body like us)

Rob & I have been teaching our 4 & 5 year olds from Sunday mornings this song, so we have listened to it quite a bit at home. Charlotte started singing it at the table the other morning & got most of the words of the first verse & chorus & then went on to say 2 of the scripture verses at the end! I was shocked & I cried because it was SO sweet.  Also in relation to this song.... we were riding in the car just chatting away & had this lovely conversation.

Char: Mommy, God is wif me.

Me:  Yes Charlotte, He is always with you.

Char: God is wif me in the dark. (when she is afraid)

Me: Your right, He IS with you in dark.

Char: But I can't see'em!

Me: Right again, remember your catechism question that said that God is spirit & that spirit is an invisible being that doesn't have a body like us? Invisible means we can't see him. Someday in heaven we will be able to see God.

Char: We see Calliou in heaven too mommy?

Sleeping like a baby:

The common thought on the phrase "sleeping like a baby" is that a baby sleeps really hard right?  Think back to the newborn stage....they sleep hard for 2 hour blocks.  That's where we are right now. She is still showing up in our room sometime during the night & we wake up with a snuggle bug next to us. I have been up past midnight all week and have taken Charlotte back to her bed at least 6 times between 8-12.  We are convinced she is not really awake & I wish we had video evidence to prove it.  We were up late a few weeks ago. Robby was coming into our bedroom from the living room & I was walking out of our bathroom into the bedroom. Charlotte was right in front of Rob walking like a zombie. The lights were dim but she barely opened her eyes. She crawled onto our bed then went up to the pillows & spent a good 4 minutes trying to move them along with the covers to get into a comfortable position. It was super un-coordinated.  We were silently laughing so hard as we observed the poor girl trying to get cozy with so much opposition from the perfectly made bed.  When it was all over, Robby whispered "I feel like we just witnessed the elusive snow leopard mate or something."  That got me laughing even harder. It's true, we are so zombie like ourselves in the middle of the night that it is a mystery how she ends up in our bed!

There is always something to postpone reformation in the sleep department & now it is that we are headed on vacation soon & will sleeping in one room for some of the nights. One day, we will lay down the law & will have one VERY unhappy snuggly Charlotte. She still sleeps from 8-7:30 (in our bed or hers or any combination of) & then from 12:30-2:30ish each afternoon.

Chatterbox:

• talks ALL the time speaking in full sentences but is still somewhat challenging for others to understand who don't spend much time with her
• "pot-to-tol" for Popsicle & "hot-to-tol" for hospital
• counts to 20 usually skipping 4 then hits 14 "fourteent" & says that 5 times before she says 20
• mimics me talking to Eloise with the same exact set of phrases with inflection especially before nap
• says "that'd be a good idea?" about nearly everything
• addresses me as "mom" most of the time
• "reads" ie tells the stories with many of the correct words- Baby Dear, 5 Little Monkeys & Miss Lina's Ballerinas
• says this ALL the time: "When I grow up, I gonna youse my teef but then I get a new toof." This all stemmed from Hannah, on of my sweet kindergartners on Sunday morning who lost both front teeth. Char saw her & said "Oh no mom! She doesn't have her teef!" 
• also says "I gonna grow up real soon & so is Eloise but Mommy says 'you stop that growin!'"
• Sings the ABC's starting with A, B, cease, D
• tells me "I very upset mom" when something is bothering her
• when Elo has a poopie diaper Charlotte says "Eloise! That's not funny!"
• if I see her sucking her thumb & ask her if she is sleepy she says "no mom, I just restin'"
• says "sprinkles" for sprinkler & sparkles
• about a month ago Robby walked into the bathroom & she was standing in front of the mirror with her shirt off & said "Daddy, these are my breasts. I feed Eloise milk from my breasts." He walked out & said, "I'm not really sure what to do with that." haha!
• when she eating she says "I'm gonna eat it all up" which the phrase apparently works with reading & watching "I'm gonna read it all up & watch it all up!"
• she is working hard to say he & she for the right people but usually talks about Eloise as a he. As she processes, her little monologue goes like this "if it is boyee, say he & boyee can be a daddy. If it is a guyl, say she & a guyl can be a mommy." So she know it but still says it wrong every time. 
• says "Funder" for thunder & "Fider" for spider

So, three years in & we LOVE her from her sweet little face...................................down to her toes : )