The things she says and does

Ella literally has us laughing out loud and pulling out hair out almost every day, sometimes within 5 minutes. Three years is such a fun age and still a little frustrating at times as well. But one of my goals with this blog is to document all the big and small things in their lives. I am not very good about writing things in the baby book (in fact, I haven't even gotten a baby book for Maddie yet and she is 6 months old!) so this blog keeps a record of their day to day life. So, miss Ella, this post is all about the funny things you say and do each day at three years old!

In our Hokie gear before the first game! You hold up your pom poms and say "hokie hokie hokie high!"

 At three years old, you say the funniest things all the time. You love to pick up any phone you see and have a fake conversation. Sometimes when a telemarketer calls, I let you answer it. You just keep repeating, "hello, this is Ella James Hennessy!"But when it comes to talking on the real phone, you are funny about that. You used to want to talk all the time, but now not so much.

You have funny names for things, you call Gatorade "gator gator", instead of saying "you forgot", you add an extra got in there and say "Mommy, you got forgot." Every night after we tuck you in bed, you have to blow us a kiss and say "love you night night" at least 3 times, sometimes more depending on how hard you are stalling that night.

You are also into letters a lot right now, you know a couple, of course E, L and A and know how to spell your name. You also know a K is Mommy's letter and a M is Daddy and Maddie's letter. You know some random ones also like R and F but the newest one you just learned is G. Everytime you see it, you shout, look Mommy G for gas!" Like when we are in public places and I am sure you do it at school, what those teachers must think! We try and say, yes, G for grapes but then you always say "and gas!" You like potty talk a lot these days. Whenever you do pass some gas, you always laugh and say "holy smokes!" We think this came from Daddy, at least, I am blaming it on him!

 You still love your sister so much and to see you all play with each other and interact is so much fun. Now that Maddie is sitting up, you love to sit next to her. But you definitely have an opinion about what toys she should play with and are very particular that she doesn't play with anything you might want to play with. We need to work on this sharing thing a little more. Before bed, I ask you what your favorite part of the day has been. Last Friday I asked you and you had done a lot of fun things that day, been to school, played at the park, played with our neighbor buddies but you thought about for awhile and then said, "taking a bath with Maddie Grace. I love taking a bath with her." Hearing those sweet words and how you two adore each other is the sweetest thing a parent can witness for sure.

 At three years old, you are still my cautious and tentative child. You want to make sure everything is very safe before you try it. But then once you do, you usually love it, it is just getting you to try it part that is hard. You rode your bike with Daddy the other day and hadn't been in awhile and even though you have been on it a lot before, you wanted to make sure that Daddy was going to go slow and not too fast.

 At three, you are very into your clothes and what you are going to wear. This is nothing new but we definitely have some battles over clothes and also your hair and how you want to wear it each day. And the bow has to match and the shoes have to be just right. And not just your clothes, Mommy's clothes, Maddie's clothes (Daddy is usually at work by the time you wake up so you can't pick out his clothes!).

Watching the Matthews Labor Day parade

One of your favorite things is dancing and singing. You love music and once it starts playing, it is like you have to start dancing and singing. We have lots of dance parties at home, with Mommy and Daddy and your best buddies in the neighborhood. When Mommy gets around to it, I am going to post a video of you singing Nicki Minaj's song, Starships. You love this and Call me Maybe the most right now. You are still undecided if you like sports or not (but daddy keeps trying) but singing and dancing are definitely at the top of your list!

You love Homer the Dragon, the mascot for the baseball team and the local beauty queens or "princesses" as you call them.

 At three you also have major opinions about what you like and don't like and you are not afraid to express those opinions. Like for lunch, you have a pb&j for lunch everyday and love it. It is our one stand by that we can go to everyday and know you will eat. But this year in school, there is a boy with a peanut allergy and so no pb&j at school. So, Mommy tried to be sneaky and buy a soy butter that looks just like peanut butter and tastes similar but no missy, you would not be fooled. You took one bite and declared you didn't like it. I tried to tell you it was just the same but you knew better and so you only had one bite of your sandwich at school and told Mommy to never use that yucky peanut butter again. No pulling a fast one on you and your peanut butter. (And can we talk about how it is so unfair to all the peanut butter lovers out there that one kid has to ruin the fun for all the others???)

 But despite the peanut butter, you absolutely love school. You wake up every morning asking if it is time to go to school and since you only go M/W/F, the days when it's not school, you get sad. But this year, being three, we get to do drop off for school. No more Mommy walking you to your class, just hopping out of the car and walking with your bag all by yourself. Yesterday was your first day and even though we discussed it, I had no idea if you would make it there since we only went twice last week. But then another Mommy emailed me and who was helping the kids find their classes and said while lots of kids needed help, not you. You walked confidentially down the hall and stopped to smile at her and went right into your class. I love that school has brought you so much confidence.

You rode the pony carousel and loved it. Getting a little more brave big sister!

 At three, you are very into birthday parties. Like love them, everything about them and good thing since we seem to go to one about every week. 

 I was shocked that you were so brave with corky the clown since you don't like characters in costumes (I don't blame you, I didn't either!) but you warmed right up to her and let her paint your face. Plus, you knew after the clown comes...

 CUPCAKES!!! You absolute favorite part of the party. You, my friend are a huge sweets lover.

Don't get me wrong, we have moments of tantrums when things don't go your way and even though we don't use it too often, you have spent some time in time out when it was warranted. I know you are learning and testing boundaries but try and give your Mommy and Daddy a break every once in awhile.

So, we will wait and see how the rest of three turns out but right now, we are excited to see you learn and grow each and everyday!

Some of your favorite things right now:

TV Shows: team umizoomi, dora the explorer, any princess movie

Games/Crafts: puzzles, painting and stamps

Favorite foods: PB&J (with the real peanut butter), pizza, cheese, rice, cereal, pancakes, cupcakes but you also eat lots of fruits (grapes, apples, strawberries, bananas, blueberries) and veggies (broccoli, corn, raw red peppers, raw carrots)

Favorite things to do outside: swing at the park, climb ladders at the park

Favorite books: Bearenstein Bears and Fancy Nancy

Stats at your 3 year check-up:

31.5 lbs (45%)

38 inches tall (77%)

Vision test: perfect

You did have to get one shot and you screamed but the toys made it all better.