3 Years Old

This will be the last post that I make about Laney's birthday. I realize that there have been lots. I want to write a little bit about our little Bug and what she is like as a three year old! (Tons of information coming......Feel free to abort now.)

One of my very favorite things about this age with Laney is how talkative she is. It is so fun to have conversations with her while she is sitting behind me in the car or while we are eating dinner together. I love to see how her little mind works and processes things. She loves to tell me about her friends at school and who did what that day. I love praying with her at night before bed and listening to her little whisper thanking God for all the things and people that she can think of at that moment.

Some of the things that Laney is up to as her sweet little three year old self.

Laney is such a player. Meaning she loves to go go go. She doesn't love to sit and do things that require stillness very much. She is not that interested in puzzles or coloring, but she loves activities that allow her to move around and be active. She loves pushing her grocery cart or stroller all over the house filling it up as she goes. She pushes them into the backyard and all over the place. She loves to go outside and will entertain herself for a long time out there just pushing things around.

She really loves singing. We are stuck on a Chubby Cubbies CD right now. It is this borderline crazy Christian CD that was given to us and she loves it. She hates when it is time to get out of the car because it means she has so stop listening to her "cubby cubbies." She loves singing lots of other songs too and sings them all the time. Lots of times I will hear her long after I have put her to bed singing songs to her babydolls in her room. Some of her favorites are: Jesus Loves Me, Old McDonalds, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, This Little Light of Mine, and Hush Little Baby Don't Say a Word.

She loves changing her babies' diapers. Every single day, I am picking up stacks of diapers that she has rolled up into "dirty diapers" We finally gave her a sack of diapers to use for her playing. They are some little ones that the boys grew out of. I can't believe they ever fit into ones that teeny. She is really into all kinds of pretend play with her babies. They get rocked to sleep, put down for naps, pushed in the swing. They get in trouble for not being sweet and for talking ugly. They have to go to timeout and say they are sorry. I can really tell how Laney thinks that I treat her by the way that she is treating her babydolls.

She pretend plays in other ways too. We have snack time for all of her friends on the living room floor on a nearly daily basis. She puts a tissue/wipe/whatever she can get her hands on down for each of her friends in a circle. She calls all of her classmates by name, passes out their imaginary snack and then sings the clean up song.

Laney loves to clean things with spray bottles full of water. She sprays things like ten million times until it is sopping wet and then dabs at it once or twice with a paper towel. "I cleaning!" she says pridefully. After some unfortunate incidents with her cleaning electronics, she is now only allowed to "clean" in the kitchen.

She LOVES running water. It probably is her absolute most favorite thing to play with in the whole world. She loves to sit on the counter in the bathroom or the kitchen and fill up cups with running water. She will do it forever!!! Probably hours if I let her. I was so excited when I found this toy online while birthday hunting for her. BUT it was sold out everywhere! I scoured the internet and finally found a brand new one on CraigsList for a great deal! YAY!!! And she loves it.

(Shout out to Pops for picking up this fabulous toy in Carrollton so that we didn't have to drive all the way out there. We love that Pops!!)

So those are many of the things my three year old likes to spend her time doing.

I don't want to forget what her sweet little three year old nature is like either. She is a funny one, our little Buggy Bug. She loves physical touch - it is probably one of her top love languages right now. She loves for me to hold her. She specifically wants me to hold her chest to chest for maximum closeness, rather than on my hip. She Luh-Huves kisses! She will sit and kiss her brothers over and over and over. She kisses everything.....her books, her carseat straps, her string cheese. Very silly, this one! She loves snuggling before bed and when I wake her up in the mornings, which I think is such a treat. She wants me to sit right next to her at her little table while she is eating and while she is watching her beloved Dora. With her brothers needing much of my attention, this doesn't happen nearly as often as she would like for it to, but she still makes the request and I hope that she doesn't stop.

As I have mentioned before, Laney is really hesitant to jump into big groups or new situations. She hangs back and stays really close to me for at least 15 or 20 minutes. Often times the more I try to get her to interact, the more reserved she is. I have learned to just give her that time to acclimate and usually she jumps in on her own. There are also times that she can't seem to shake that anxiety and she needs to stay pretty attached to me for an entire situation. I am trying not to push her, allowing her to be on her own timeline, and am so grateful that she feels safe with me and sees me as a refuge when she is feeling overwhelmed.

Laney has become a very polite little girl! I am so so glad. We have really worked on expecting this from her at all times. She now almost always asks questions starting with, "May I please....." What cracks me up is how she thinks that if she does that, she should get whatever she wants. "May I please have a zert???" (a dessert) First thing in the morning?!? Sorry, sweet girl. Thanks for asking so sweetly, but no! She is pretty good about saying please and thank you to other people too, but gets a little shy and it generally comes out in a quiet whisper. She is also becoming much better about sharing. This has been a long road, but I am sure that it is for most toddlers. She is learning how to take turns, and even initiates sharing toys and snacks with her friends and cousins at times. I love hearing her, with no prompting, ask sweetly for a turn with a toy, or hand a toy to a friend when they ask to play.

She really loves her Daddy. She asks for him a zillion times a day. If she gets hurt, she immediately starts asking for him and is she ever gets in trouble and I am getting on to her she wants Daddy desperately. I assure her that Daddy would be just as hard on her, but that doesn't make her want him any less. She also asks for him all day long randomly. She loves when he gets home and she loves playing with him so much.

I have said so many times what a great big sister Laney is, but I just can not say it enough. She has never once said a single negative thing about her brothers or acted ugly to them in any way. She loves them so much. She loves kissing them, laying on the floor with them, singing to them, sitting in between their bumbo seats with her arms around them watching Baby Einstein with them. Her newest favorite thing to do is climb in their cribs with them whenever they wake up from their naps. This makes me a little nervous, so it is a closely monitored activity.

Laney is such a determined little thing. This is one of my favorite aspects of her character. I love that she doesn't give up. No matter how hard the job is, if she starts it, she is probably going to see it through. Most of the time this involves something ridiculous, like dragging a riding toy all the way up to the top of the play structure at the park, or maneuvering her stroller meticulously through our maze of a garage. She just gets the job done. I love that and I can't wait to watch it develop over the years!

What a gift these three years (minus the three months that Laney was here on this Earth before we knew her....weird) have been to us. It boggles my mind to think of all the years of joy that we have in store for us with her. Being a parent is the best gig there is.

Like every year on Laney's birthday, we were very mindful of her birth mother. I can not imagine what this day holds for her, especially now having carried our boys and delivered them. We said prayers for Laney's Taiwanese mommy and Laney even thanked God for her

Tie-knees mommy.

I am thrilled to be starting Laney's fourth year and can barely wait to see what it holds!

Dora Birthday Party!

We had Laney's birthday party on Saturday. We planned a party at the park with a Dora theme. Laney dressed to match her favorite animated friend.

We couldn't find a purple backpack, so Laney had to make do with her little Mavericks one. (which she could wear with pride based on our little mavericks recent performance in the playoffs!)

We got to the park and Laney camped out in her new little chair to watch Daddy and Pops work on the grill.Sam wore his hat joyfully to help celebrate his big sister!

So did Miles.

Pops wanted to make sure that he was decked out for our fiesta. Nice!

My mom and Kevin have a boat and Kev got it all set for us to go out on the lake during the party. Laney was really happy about walking down to the boat with him. She was literally jumping up and down the whole way!Janelle and Ella came to the party! It was so much fun to get to hang out with them and to watch our girls have tons of fun together. Ella was a rockstar on the boat. She was really brave and loved it so much.

She even wanted to sit all by herself.Laney's sweet big cousin being her silly self.

Laney really does enjoy the boat, but she is not ready to sit on her own just yet!Coming off the boat

The kids all joined hands to walk back from the water to our picnic site. It was one of the sweetest things that I have ever seen!

I love the way G is looking down at Laney. He was checking to make sure that she was happy since it was her special day. What a great cousin!

The kids all saw Bobbis from far away and started a mad dash for her. Even Ella got caught up in the excitement to hug Bobbis.

Laney was pretty excited to get to see Aunt Cait too.

Miles Man got to spend some time with Bobbis.
And Sam had fun with Uncle Jack.

The kids got started on some appetizers of chips. We gave them a few handfuls and before we knew it, they were over on the blanket with entire bags.

Time for a nap for Sam Bones. Thanks to Nae Nae for giving him such a comfy resting spot.

Laney and Ella ate their hot dogs together. Who knows how they had any room left in their little tummies after all the chip consumption.

After we ate, it was time for the Dora pinata. Laney got to hit it first, but she didn't make much of a dent.

Claire Bear giving it her all.

Grant took a few last swings at the pinata, but she was holding her own. We finally decided to pull the ribbons and open the bottom up, then let him knock all the candy out. Then, Todd went a little crazy. He hit Dora so hard her head came off. While all the other kids were just thrilled to see candy flying everywhere, Laney was absolutely horrified. She started crying hysterically and saying that Daddy broke her Dora. We just tried to distract her with all the candy and she started to feel better.

Pops put Dora's head on his hand and started talking to the kids. They were cracking up. I am so glad that Laney recovered from her grief so quickly and wasn't permanently traumatized.

Laney got a huge Dora beach towel from Jenna. She opened it and started talking in the voice she usually uses for her brothers. She was saying, "Okay guys, look at this..."

Aunt Jenna also gave Laney some sassy sparkly flip flops. She LOVED them. She had been acting a little reserved for most of the party, but these flip flops were the catalyst that sent her into super silly mode!
Ella had the very same flips on and they were so excited!
They started running all over the place stopping periodically to compare their shoes.

I could barely convince her to come back and finish opening her gifts. Way to go Aunt Jenna! Jackpot!

Laney had thank you hugs for Aunt Jenna.

and for Nae Nae!

Sam was getting some entertainment from Pops and Nae Nae during all that present opening.

It was time for sweet Ella to head home, so Laney gave her some good bye hugs. I love love love that we have pictures of our girls together celebrating all three of their birthdays so far. It is fun to think about them looking back at how cute they were together over the years.

Tessa is right up there with Laney in her love of Dora, so she was pretty interested in checking out her new singing Dora book.

Hailey made this amazing Dora cake for Laney. I can't even imagine all the hours she spent tediously squeezing out stars to make Laney her dream cake. She is a pretty spectacular aunt! I couldn't find the big #3 candle that I bought for Laney to blow out. I thought that I put it in all our bags of stuff, but it sure was on the counter when we got home that night. It wasn't that big of a deal since Laney continues to suffer from candle blowing anxiety. We sang to her and she took pictures of her cake.

After some Dora cake, Laney and her cousins ran over to the playground to play while everything got cleaned up by our sweet families.

Grommy got Laney what just might be the ultimate gift for her. She ordered a personalized episode of Dora for her. It is the episode titled "Whose Birthday is It?" This is an episode that we have seen before (several times) at our house because it is a Dora episode and we are fully committed to watching every last one of them lots and lots of times. Dora and Boots spend the whole episode trying to figure out whose birthday it is. They meet up with all their friends on their way to the party. It ends up being Swiper's birthday. Laney's version starts off with a balloon with her picture on it and Dora says her name throughout the episode. They get to the party and it is for Laney. Her head is super imposed on a little cartoon body that dances around with Dora. It is really really cute and she couldn't love it any more!

More Birthday Fun!

When I met Laney in Grommy's office after school on her birthday, she was still decked out in her birthday crown and munching on the cookie from her party. Laney really loves and is loved by the ladies that Lezlie works with, so I am glad that she got to celebrate a little bit of her special day with them.

Grommy brought Laney a little present to open in her office, but Laney was more excited about the orange tic tacs that she always finds in the treasure chest that is Grommy's desk drawer!

This cheesy face permeates much of the rest of our pictures. It is what I get when I ask her to smile for the camera.

After we left the church, Laney, the boys and I went to the mall for some more of Laney's favorite things....a Sonic slush and the Carousel!! Laney has maintained her loyalty to this war horse. She always waves hello and goodbye to him if we are at the mall.

She finished off her roll of film taking pictures of HER horsie.

I was wearing Miles in the Bjorn and Laney kept kissing the top of Miles's head each time her horsie came down. Jess and her girls came over to our house for some more celebrating. They made Laney feel so special and she was so excited to get to play with them. She has started thanking God at night for "her sister." When I ask who her sister is, she says, "Claire Bear!" Not sure how Claire landed that role and not Tessie, but I am glad that they were both there to party a little bit with us on Thursday!

Laney got out her Dora memory game that she had opened that morning and Jess got it all set up for the girls to play, while I finished Laney's cake. (I thank God at night for my sister too!)

After playing Memory, the girls sang Happy Birthday and got to eat some ice cream and cookies.

I realize that this was Laney's third cookie of the day, but she never finishes any of them. She just nibbles at the frosting. This is not a trait that she inherited from me!

When Todd got home, Laney was finally able to open what she had been calling her Tower of Presents.

Todd and the boys settled in for the festivities.She opened up a Slice and Bake cookies set and brought one over to eat with her brothers.Then it was time to take them into the kitchen to bake.(wearing some of her new fancy dress up shoes, which she also wore out to dinner at Pei Wei later on.)

She also got a doctor's kit. I knew she would love it since we read Dora Goes to the Doctor every day! She immediately began administering shots to her brothers. They were very brave.

She got out the otoscope to check on Daddy's ears

Our small group was meeting for dinner that night. At first I was sad that we had to share Laney's birthday evening, but it was a really fun night. I should have known. Our small group is so sweet!! Especially to our kids.

Here is the cake that I made for Laney. She requested pink and purple. I found a recipe for Strawberry cake, but it didn't turn out pink like I thought that it would, so I had to dye the white chocolate in the frosting to make it pink!

Laney had the same candle blowing anxiety that she had last year on her birthday. She loves blowing out other people's candles on their birthdays, so I am not sure why she is weirded out by her own. i think that she doesn't like everyone's eyes on only her.

Sam is being held by his bestie, Chad. They bond together every Monday night when Chad blesses me to pieces by holding Sam for our entire meeting!!!My big beautiful three year old girl!Sam was getting his hair styled. Looking crazy, little boy! Laney loves Joy-ra and Jill, and she was having a great time as always playing with them.

This was a game of drums using chopsticks.