A letter to my {second} daughter: You are THREE!

Aleesia -

I know that when you are old enough to buy-in to the whole “middle child” characteristics you will give me a TON of crap for the fact that your third birthday letter is two months and eight days late. I don’t have a reason for why it took me so long to get to this other than, life is busy my sweet girl and YOU keep me busy!

Three is an age that is notoriously difficult – full of spunk and excitement, trials and learning, snuggles and independence. You, my darling, are full of SO MUCH spunk and snuggles that I can barely handle it some days.

You love your pink blanket (pink bankie) and it is usually not too far from wherever you are. Pink blanket becomes a cape, a comfort, a pillow, a coat and many other variety of imaginative things. You are a master negotiator and your favorite case is to just snuggle for a few more minutes, and you drive a hard bargin. There are a lot of moments of a lot of days where your stubbornness shines through – you hold your ground with every ounce of determination you can muster up and I am sure this is going to come in handy as you get older but right now, sometimes you really do just need help opening your yogurt!

Watching you take on your roll as a big sister as Vivian gets older is very fun. You love her, you want to always know where she is and what she is doing but as she starts to play more you don’t always know what to do with her! In fact, the other day you saw she was playing so you brought her a baby doll. If she cries, you are either really concerned and want me to help her or you get very angry because she is hurting your ears! You definitly still think Gianna is worth hanging out with and are always asking if you can have sleep overs in her room.

I have to say though, Luci is probably your favorite person.

You’re a free spirit. You do what you want, when you want the vast majority of the time. You love to be outside. You wanted nothing more than a dog and when we got you one, I think it made your year. Bell is very much your favorite, you love to play with her all day and to snuggle her.

One of the most exciting things that has happened since your birthday is that you started preschool and you LOVE it! You also LOVE dance, both your own class and watching Gianna’s classes. Another tiny dancer, no doubt about it.

You love Anna (from Frozen) and every time you see an airplane you tell me you want to go to Disney World. You are going to be one happy, surprised little girl next month because we ARE going to Disney World! I can absolutley not wait to take you there! You get super super excited over things that I would never think were that exciting, which really teaches me to look at things a little different and see the excitement that exists. You love makeup and picking out my clothes.

Aleesia, you are the sweetest snuggle bug. I can’t believe the way you can make me feel better with a little hug or a random “I dus love you, mommy” and when you ask for me to lay with you at nap or at bedtime. I love the way you talk, the words you use, the way you say certain things (ooze instead of use is probably my favorite).

(the fact that you aren’t looking in this picture says SO much about your little self!)

There are a lot of difficult days and moments but that is par for the course. For every hard moment in time there is a sweet and/or funny one coming up to take its place. You are joyful, hilarious, sometimes shy but usually very social and honestly light up my day, every day.

I can’t imagine life without you and your piercing blue eyes.

Love you,

Mommy

Arty Party: Aleesia is 3!

Aleesia turned 3 on February 1st and we had an art party! I had WAY too much fun planning this and it ended up being such a fun morning with our friends and family! A quick run-down on the party and a few pictures to share!

 

Decorations – This was actually really simple to put together.

I grabbed a pack of aprons from Amazon, put up some of the kids artwork in the entry way to make an “art gallery”, covered the tables with brown craft paper and that was pretty much it!

We grabbed canvases and paint from Hobby Lobby – all of the kids LOVED painting! And we had a face paint station, too! Everyone painted away, or colored on the tables, and it was just a really fun time.

Food – I kept it simple, again! Sandwiches, fruit cups, dip and dessert!

The birthday girl insisted on a Minnie cake, so that is what she got!

 

The girls enjoyed themselves!

 

Everyone sang happy birthday (and Aleesia refused to blow out her candles!).

And she was so dang happy about this Anna nightgown!

But she loved everything, per her usual style!

But this picture just makes me smile, best grandparents ever!

 

Three looks good on this girl, if I do say so myself!

Cookies & Cocoa: Vivian’s 1st Birthday Party

I can’t believe it has taken me two months to put this together! I love throwing parties, I enjoy planning and decorating and just celebrating the HECK out of people!

Vivian’s birthday is right before Christmas so naturally, I took advantage of the season adn had a Cookies & Cocoa party for her first birthday.

I didn’t do anything other than put up our regular Christmas decorations in the decor department, so that was great!

I kept the food fairly simple– a sandwich tray, PB&J for the kids, fruit, veggies, spinach artichoke dip, cheese sticks, applesauce and pretzels on the tables.

A hot cocoa bar! I used a reciepe for the crock pot hot chocolate and it was GREAT! We had a few mix-ins: whipped cream, mini chocolate chips, andies mint pieces, mini marshmallows and Baileys for the over 21ers.

And of course, cookies! We had a few varieties and a naked smash cake!

 

It was a super fun party

Getting a picture of everyone is nearly impossible!

I think Vivian enjoyed the smashing of the cake!

 

 

And the main lesson here? It is nearly impossible to host and appropiately photograph a party!

Independence

There is no question that the three girls who live in this house crave independence and it occured to me today, that based on their ages, independence means something different to each of them. I encourage and try to cultivate an environment for them that allows for that independence and exploration of their world. I am not going to be there for every step, it is impossible and I don’t want to see EVERY step they make (but I do want to hear about them!).

 

Vivian is at the most innocent age of independence. She wants to walk and crawl and just be alone to explore the corner of the living room or the dollhouse around the corner. Her little world is expanding a bit but she still needs to be able to peek around that corner and see her mama. She is starting to talk some and communicate in any means necessary! Her independence grows a little every day and it is adorable to watch.

 

Aleesia is very nearly 3 and she is full-on in the “I do it MY OWNSELF” independence is everything mode. She takes the independence that comes with learning to do everything herself to an extreme. She yells. She screams. She fights that battle of getting her shirt on herself so hard some days! (she put a dress on backwards the other day and she would not let me help her fix it, but she got it right her ownself!) She wants to be in the mix of everything all the time, and usually she wants to be leading the mix. I always let her try to do whatever she can/wants to do. She loves to help cook, do dishes, clean up, vacuum, feed the dog, dress herself, etc. If I could channel that independence into potty training that would be amazing! Her world is growing too, she realizes there is power in doing things her ownself and that is pretty fun to watch even when it is incredibly frustrating!

 

Gianna is 6 (and three-quarters) ((that is a really important part of her age, if you ask her!)). She is without me all day at school, she is without me for several evening hours a week when she is at her activities. I feel like the idea of independence is taking on a whole new tone with her. She doesn’t need me to help her do really anything related to her everyday needs besides remind her of certain things. She loves to be the leader but she struggles when others don’t follow her lead. She feels so much emotion, which can actually be very hard when you are trying to be an independent 6 3/4 year old because you still feel scared or nervous a lot. I see it in her eyes – she wants so badly to be older at times, but she isn’t there yet (and that is okay, I’m not ready for that either!). She enjoys time alone, she always has. I love watching her learn to navigate a world that is much larger than she ever imagined.

 

I am learning with them, as I always do. I am learning that they might be sisters but they are each 110% their own person. What worked well as encouragement for one girl doesn’t work so well for the others. What one considered a perfectly acceptable activity to do alone, the others may not. Their uniqueness often makes me take a step back and evaluate each situation differently because I find myself saying “well this worked before….” but before it worked on a different person and this is a new person! My favorite part of being their mom is watching them grow and learn and do things on their own.  Their worlds are the same but so very different, just as they are.

Another "I never" reality check

Kids have big imaginations and they wish and hope so fiercely that you absolutely will so whatever you can to make that wish and hope a reality.

Toddlers especially have a special way of taking your pre-parenthood"I never" list and ripping it to pieces. Successive toddlers take whatever was left of that list and burn it!

With Gianna, among a thousand other things, I swore I'd never let her eat anywhere but the kitchen table. But then it was so sweet when she munched Cheerios while singing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I swore I'd never let her go out of the house mismatched or in dress up clothes. Turns out those  things are basically considered regular outfits around here and I don't even ask Aleesia to get out of her jammies some days because it isn't worth the struggle.

I usually can't deny requests for more snuggles, milk, snacks, teets (treats) when a pwease is accompanying the request.

Aleesia loves animals. She cried when we moved to our new house because she missed my parents dog so much. She even asked to move back to "weno's house" (Reno!) recently.  She loves when my sister's dogs lick on her and love her.

All Aleesia wanted  for Kissmiss (Christmas) was "a weel bawkin dawg" one that would "yick" her and snuggle her. She repeated this request over and over to anyone who would (or wouldn't) ask. I was SO AGAINST this idea. We have a new house! I have enough on my plate. NO DOGS ALLOWED. EVER. NEVER EVER! We can visit dogs and love on them then go home.

(You see where this is going, don't you?)

Santa bought her a FurReal dog that barked! She would love it. (She did). But I felt bad, like her heart would be broken into a million pieces without a REAL dog. Mike and Gianna both tried to convince me to give in.

It turns out, they won.

We found this little pup (she is a chihuahua/mini pit bull mix) on Christmas eve. My sister kept her & the girls were SO SHOCKED! (Video!)

We weren't disappointed by the surprise. Or the love that Aleesia, especially, gives her. It will be sweet to watch this other kind of relationship unfold.

I'm still not a dog person and really can't believe we did this. But it will be fine. Thankfully, she is tiny and so far a pretty good pup!

That "I never" list is totally torched - Vivian will probably be able to have whatever she wants before she even asks.