Miss Hadleigh Claire is 3

It is true, the little miss celebrated her third birthday on Saturday. Amazing. I am a little nervous because we had a really rough two weeks leading up to three, so does that mean the twos went out with a bang, or the threes are entering with a bang. Yikes! In any case Hadleigh has calmed down a bit and we are looking forward to a good year.

We had a little party for her a couple weeks ago. It was small and uncomplicated. I have heard from other parents that sometimes birthday parties are the most un-fun time for the birthday child. I hate that idea, so we have always tried to keep things super simple and thus far we have had great success with all our parties. She had three of her best buds come over and they all brought their parents with them. And then our good bud Jess came too. We had yummy hamburgers and hot dogs, guacamole and chips, and fruit. Dave made the cake which was Elmo...that was a last minute decision, but it turned out well. The kiddos played, we ate lunch and cake and we played some more and everyone left. Pretty simple and no melt downs. Hadleigh got really nervous when it was time to blow out the candles. She realized everyone was looking at her and did not know what to do. She did end up blowing out the candles but as you can see from the pictures she looks concerned.

Enough about the party and onto info about Hadleigh. We have told her that 3 things happen when you turn three. 1. You start going poop in the potty (still working on that one). 2. You will start sleeping in the same room with Annelise. 3. You will get a special chore to do everyday. We are still working on all three of these things. I think this next week we will be moving Annelise into the room with Hadleigh, but we are all ready to begin that endeavor and I think it will be a good move. I have heard other moms say that once they moved their children into the same room the kids began to get along better. We will see, but I hope that it will continue to grow their relationship as sisters. We are also still trying to figure out a specific chore for Hadleigh to do. Any suggestions are welcome. We are thinking about putting her dishes in the dishwasher. Making her own bed. Putting her clean clothes away...I am just not sure which one I want to give her control over.

We have had a lot of sharing wars over the last month, drama! I wish there was a magic bullet for that, but we are working on it day by day. She has also become a little more dramatic and there has been a lot more whining and lot more tears. That results in a lot of "breaks" where she goes u pto her room to gather herself. That seems to be working. We also continue the, "do you hear me speaking to you in a normal voice? I would like you to ask me in a normal voice." That is working on the whining. It is TRAINING all day every day it seems and I get tired of it. But I figure if I don't want her to whine forever I better begin to nip this. I do not have any delusions that the whining phase will go away quickly.

There are so many fun things that Hadleigh does these days. She is always so excited about life in general and I LOVE that. She loves school, her friends, going outside, getting special treat, working on special projects, etc. It is somewhat easy to distract her from her fit by getting her excited about something else. We love going on walks, or just playing outside. She loves getting in the van to go somewhere, especially the park. She loves her friends and gets SO excited when she sees them or they come over to play. She helps me do a lot of cooking. She also helped me plant seeds for our garden. So far so good. They are still in the pellet form, but everything is beginning to sprout! She loves animals and is always asking if she can pet any puppy she sees.

Her vocab is growing and she is always asking questions like, "what are you doin' Mama? what are you doin'?" and "what happened Mama? What happened?" and "Where is ______(Dada, Annelise, or any other friend she can think of) and "Going to school today, Mama? School today?" She obviously likes to repeat herself. I do not know if that is because I fail to answer her sometimes, or if that is just her way. Sometimes it is hard because these questions tend to come right at a tense time...when I am trying to find something, or get everyone out the door, or...you get the idea. I am working on that. She is just curious which is SO fun and I love it, it just also gets tiring.

Last night I heard her in bed singing, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there is nothing my God cannot do." Dave and I just laughed. She loves going to church and learning about God. And we also try to teach her about God when we do things around the house. I know I have mentioned this before, so I will skip the repeat.

She loves Annelise and would do anything for her. She is so excited about sharing her room with Annelise and is always willing to get Annelise's bunny or puppy for her. When she gets in the car after preschool she always walks over to greet Annelise. She watches out for her and of course Annelise LOVES Hadleigh. I look forward to seeing them continue to grow.