Lily is Three!

Lily had a Pooh-rific birthday party a few weeks ago.

Lily thought it was pretty cool when everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her. So cool, that she asked for an encore!

As soon as I set the cake in front of her, she started scooping frosting off the sides and eating it.

Pooh and Piglet wishing Lily a happy 3rd birthday.

The raspberries were a big hit again this year. There is something about birthday parties that gets Lily and her friends excited about picking/eating them.

The Quales. Yes, those are coats Nana and Papa are wearing. It was unseasonably cool that day (unlike last year when we were melting!). Unfortunately, my parents and Nicole were not able to be there for Lily's party. For Nicole, the timing just didn't work out for a visit that weekend so we Skyped with her during the gift opening. My dad was feeling very under the weather with possibly the flu and to avoid passing it on, to the kids or Chris especially, he stayed home. To be on the safe side, my mom stayed home too and we Skyped with them during cake time. Thank goodness for technology!

Lily and her friends playing on the "playground". It's funny how much braver Lily gets when she's playing with Hailey and Taylor. She was climbing all over the place!

Hailey and Taylor helping Lily open her gifts.

Princess Lily.

Nana and Papa got Lily some adorable fairy and princess dress up clothes. Here she is wearing the Silvermist outfit.

Great-Auntie Arlene and Great-Uncle Todd gave Lily this very cool princess backpack. She looks like she's ready for school!

Nana and Papa with their little princess.

Peek-a-boo! Lily and Taylor loved playing in this little Dora the Explorer play tent from Todd and Jeanne.

Thankfully it warmed up as the party went on so Lily could take off her jacket and shoes.

Lily usually ends up getting more dirty on her birthday than a normal day, but I still think it's fun to get a special birthday dress for her.

Thankfully, my mom never got sick so she came over to celebrate a belated Pooh birthday with Lily. Here they are reading one of the Pooh books Grandma and Grandpa got for her.

I think I posted a picture before of Lily and my mom's magnifying glass, which she loved. So, my mom got her one for her very own...complete with a Pooh-decorated case with her name on it.

Here Lily is testing it out. She's been magnifying her books, etc. every day since!

Three Year Old Lily update:

Lily continues to amaze us with her language development, memory, and thirst for learning. She'll get a new book and have it nearly memorized before we know it. One of our favorites right now is "Bubble Gum Bubble Gum" by Lisa Wheeler. We found it randomly at the library and loved it so much I bought it. I highly recommend it! Lily has become very interested in spelling. We have moved back to the foam letters which taught her the alphabet and use them for spelling. In fact, she sometimes takes the baby books with a picture and one word, and spells them out with the letters by herself.

Lily has become increasing independent. She can entertain herself for longer periods of time which is great for her and for me since I often need to be doing something with Audrey. She is also exerting her independence by trying/wanting to do things herself. I often hear "No, I do it" all day long. It's taken me a little while to get used to that since she used to not even want to try things. Even though it can be frustrating, it's great that she is doing more on her own.

Lily still loves music. She often will put music on the stereo and sing full songs out loud. She'll sing along with songs she barely knows and makes up the words she doesn't know. I love this since I grew up in a house full of singing. She also loves dancing. The three of us girls like to have "dance parties" in the living room which include lots of jumping, twirling, and clapping. Lily also loves the water. I did 7 weeks of swimming lessons with her at the YMCA and after getting over some initial doubt and fear during the first lesson, she loved it! Now, every time she sees her swim towel or swimsuit, she asks "Are we going swimmin'?" We will continue with more lessons later on since both girls need to be good swimmers since Nana and Papa live on a lake and Grandma and Grandpa have a cabin on a lake.

Just within the past few months, Lily has really come out of her shell. She used to be very shy when meeting new people or even seeing people she knew. It would take her a while before she would warm up. Now, she is much more social right off the bat. Recently, we had a first play date with a neighbor girl and Lily was not shy at all. By the end, they were playing together like they'd been friends forever. This is fantastic since my major concern for her being ready for school was her social abilities since she isn't around other kids a ton.

Lily is still a very good sleeper. She threatened to give up her nap two separate times, but has gone back to napping about week later both times. She has cut down her night time sleep to closer to 10-11 hours and naps for usually over 2 hours in the afternoon. I know she'll give it up eventually, but she clearly still needs it now.

Potty-training has been our biggest issue right now. Lily first showed interest before she was even two years old. I never pushed anything or tried very hard to train her since Audrey was on her way. Everything I'd heard was that kids often regress in toilet training once their sibling arrives. She showed interest again after Audrey was born and even used the potty a few times. However, I was exhausted with a new baby and didn't push it. Two weekends ago, we decided to kamikaze it and put underwear on her. It started out great. She peed on her little potty once, and had one accident. Then she kept holding it and holding it and holding it. We were impressed actually how long she did hold it. She just did not want to go in the potty (or in her new underwear). After dancing around, crossing her legs for a long time, she had her second accident. I put her on the potty right away, and she just lost it. She was so upset that we just decided to stop. She clearly didn't not want to go on the potty yet. It's not that she doesn't understand. She also really wants to wear her underwear. She's just stubborn. It was reminiscent of the bottle battle we had with her when she was 5 months old and the 24 hour food battles I still have with her. If she doesn't want to do something, she won't. Her stubbornness with serve her well in the future, but for now, it is keeping her in diapers. So now we are just waiting for her to want to use the potty in her own time. It's frustrating, but that's the way it has to go. I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough.

Lastly (sinced this is getting ridiculously long), Lily had her three year pediatrician appointment. She is still in the 80-85th percentile in height and grew over three inches in a year. She is now 38.5 inches tall. That's clearly where she did all her growing because she didn't even gain a whole pound in a year. She went from the 89th percentile to the 55th in weight and now weighs 31 lbs. That's not too surprising since she has become such a picky eater. Also, Dave's genetics might be kicking in since he was a pretty skinny kid:) Lily had her blood pressure and eye sight checked and both were great. They also calculate her BMI now (which is weird since she's only 3!). Lily's is 14.7 which is in the 20th percentile. Enough with the numbers...Lily is a happy healthy three year old and we are so blessed for that!