Three

Yes, she turned three in May. Yes, it’s August and I am just now doing her three year blog post. Without a doubt I am in serious denial about my baby turning into a little girl. The really great part about it, though? She is too! She is still my baby in every sense of the word. She loves being little, loves curling up and snuggling in my lap. She has not yet given up that snuggle time the way Mak did when he turned three. And I LOVE that!

I’ve been spending a ton of one on one time with my baby girl lately since her big brother is in school ALL DAY LONG (yes, I’m still a little bitter about that but it’s getting better). I ADORE this baby. She is so much fun to be around. I am constantly amazed at the things she does and says and the pure sweetness that comes from her heart. I LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with her and I don’t know what I’m going to do in a couple of weeks when she joins her brother at school every single day. Thank goodness it will only be until mid-morning! Here are some things that my girl is up to at age three…

She is a Momma. Actually, she’s one of the best Mommas I know! Her babies are so real to her and she loves them with all of her heart. Go ahead, ask her what she wants to be when she grows up. Every time, her answer is “a mommy”. When she learned that her baby cousin Tess could not use a pillow in her crib because it is dangerous for babies to sleep with pillows, she quit using them too. Her logic? She sleeps with her babies and if it is dangerous for babies to sleep with a pillow then she will sacrifice and not sleep with one either. We have tried to convince her that it would be okay for her to use her pillow, but she refuses. See? She’s a Momma. She will let NOTHING harm her babies! She also nurses her little ones. At Disney she brought a baby into the parks. At one point she told Li-Li (my mom) that her baby was hungry and needed to eat. “Well feed her” Li-Li said. So right there, in the middle of the Magic Kingdom, my baby girl lifted her dress and started nursing her baby doll. She keeps up with when they need to eat, when they need a diaper change. She fixes the older ones meals in her kitchen. She takes them on vacations and colors them pictures. She LOVES them. Last night, she welled up with tears and her little lip started quivering and out of the blue she said “I need to bring my babies with me when we see Jesus in Heaven. I can’t leave them.” Oh, my sweet girl.

She is the most sensitive child I have ever been around. Her little heart can shatter into a million pieces at the drop of a hat. I have to be very careful in the way I respond to her when she is misbehaving. There is an extremely fine line with Clara Beth between punishing her for doing wrong and crushing her little spirit. When she does something that we consider funny but she doesn’t it’s important that she doesn’t see us laugh. She thinks we are laughing at her and it really hurts her feelings. For instance, that feeding her baby episode at Disney? It would have crushed her if she had seen us giggling.

Along with that sensitivity comes a HUGE shyness. She will not speak to people in public. At home she is Little Miss Chatterbox and sometimes I think I will lose my mind she talks so much, but never out in public. I know exactly how she feels because I was that way as a child. I can remember it actually being painful for someone to speak to me. I hate that I passed that along to her. Oh, well. I grew out of it and hopefully she will too.

She is my little Fashionista. She has STRONG opinions about the clothes that she wears, whether it be a play outfit, church outfit or even her pajamas. She loves to shop and will try clothes on with no hesitation or fight. In fact, I have to be careful because she’s been known to start stripping in the middle of a store if she sees something she likes. I LOVE that she loves to shop! My mom and I shared so many fun times on shopping trips growing up, and I am so excited that she and I can do that as well.

Her Bubbo is her best friend. They play together for hours. The sibling rivalry has gotten worse in the last 6 months, but they still love each other to pieces. Some of their favorite things to do together are art, legos, and actually…playing with her babies! He’s a sneaky little thing about it, though. He tricks her into thinking she is playing babies when in actuality they are playing fire men (rescuing dolls from a burning building), police (chasing run-away speeding dolls), pirates (rescuing princess babies from the pirates)…her brother can be pretty creative when she refuses to play anything other than baby dolls!

She is a PICKY eater!!! It drives me INSANE!!! The only vegetable she will eat is butter beans. The only fruit she will eat is apple slices…no peel, thank you very much. She likes grilled chicken, pimento cheese, tuna. No bread. She likes yogurt and granola bars (she calls them ganiwa bars). She used to like macaroni and I liked that because it was an easy one to hide veggies in, but lately she says “that isn’t very good for me”. Stinker.

She is starting dance this week! I am Sooo Excited and so is she! I have a feeling it will take her a while to actually participate in the class, but I hope she will eventually because I know she will love it. She dances around the house all the time. In fact, she doesn’t walk. She jumps, twirls, leaps…but never walks. And not very gracefully, either. Poor thing falls and runs into things ALL THE TIME. She also sings a lot. I often joke that she thinks her life is a Disney musical because she makes up songs about anything and everything that is going on. When we are getting dressed in the morning she sings “I am so Pwetty, I love my dwess!” She’s humble, too. 😉

She can’t say the R, L, and Th sounds. And I can’t get enough of it. Her voice is absolutely precious and I will be so sad when she learns to say those sounds. She also has some funny “baby” words. For the longest time she called hotels “helltells”. Not sure why, but it was cute. She lost that baby word on our recent trip to Collin’s parent’s though. And she calls waterfalls “watafaats”. I love the baby words!

She LOVES joking with her daddy. She and Collin have that special Daddy Daughter relationship that I love. She knows he is her protector and she adores him. They read together, make up elaborate stories…they just love one another. She told me in carline yesterday “I’m Daddy’s girl!” Love it!

We are so proud of our three year old girl! While it’s sad to see her grow up it’s also a lot of fun and we love the little girl she is becoming. Clara Beth, you will always be Momma’s Baby. I love you to pieces, Sweetheart!

Oh, and Baby Girl WILL have a slideshow coming up soon. Be on the look-out!