Bree at Three!

 I can't believe this little girl is 3!  She is so fun and makes me laugh nearly every day.  She is growing up so quickly and her personality is really coming through.  She is incredibly patient with a mom who, being on her third kid, isn't quite as attentive as she should be and often is doing errands or chores instead of playing as much as Bree would like.  She loves to just be with me, even if that means helping me with laundry or dishes, or shopping for anything.  She has a very goofy side (which probably has been influenced quite a bit by Finn) and enjoys laughing and making others laugh.  She loves to be outside and to do everything her brothers do.  I'm still impressed every night when I tell the boys to go get their jammies, and Bree is the first one to run to me with hers either in her hand or even sometimes put on all by herself.  (I never ask her to do this as I figure I will get it for her, but if she hears me tell the other kids to do it she just does it, too.)  Being a third child, she also has learned many things that the boys did not until much later.  For example, she has many phrases that just makes my jaw drop.  "That's not fair!", "OH.MY.HECK", and general talking to the other cars on the road ("Come on, go!"), etc.  That last one may just be my influence.  :)  She calls her brothers, "My kids" or "My boys" and truly feels that connection to them.

She has excellent fine motor skills and can color and draw quite well.  In fact, that is one of her favorite activities.  She can peddle her tricycle and wants to learn to ride a bicycle (we need to put some training wheels back on one so she can practice).  She is super excited to take swimming lessons (I haven't actually signed her up yet because I'm hoping she can wait until the boys are back in school) and loves to talk about playing with her nursery friends.  Her favorite nursery friends are Xander, Issac (he just moved and she doesn't understand he's not coming back yet), Corey, and Kate.  (That is pretty much everyone except Sammy.  Good girl intuitively knows that I don't like Sammy's family at all!)  Her favorite food is anything that is sugar based and "Mickey" chicken nuggets.  Oh, and she does also like cheese and chocolate milk.  Her favorite animals are elephants and giraffes and her favorite color is purple (or pink depending on the day).  She prefers to be in jammies with her hair undone (just combing her hair is a form of torture in her opinion), but she sure loves to dress up for church.  Her favorite dresses have to be big, poofy, and pink, with preferably a bow to tie on the back.  She is not potty trained, but that's not for a lack of trying on my part.  We took two serious attempts and they completely backfired.  While she is capable of being potty trained, she decided that she no longer wanted to poop at all...anywhere.  She became quite constipated and we had several yucky weekends trying to clear her out anyway we could.  There was a lot of screaming and crying, some throwing up, and finally poop.  After a few weeks of that, I put her back in whatever she wanted (pull-ups) and I'm letting her figure it out herself.  She is quite independent and will take herself to the potty a couple of times every day but ultimately she uses the pull-ups as diapers and I'm not correcting that for the time as I just want her to poop.  She is also a lot of drama.  She threw a tantrum at baseball last week and there were several parents just laughing as she went from sitting on the ground to throwing herself back in the grass with her arms spread eagle.  Yes, I agreed it was pretty funny.

The man installing our tile came back to finish up his portion on her birthday and she was so excited to tell him it was her day!  When he went to lunch he stopped at the store and bought her a jumbo cupcake.  We cut it up and all share it after lunch.  And we repaid him by blowing up several balloons for him to take home to his kids.

She insisted on a pinata for her birthday.

My girl

I wish we could see just how big her smile is here.  Kai has a beanie boo named Pokey and Bree has had her eye on the girl version for at least 6 months.  This pink/purple turtle is named Slowpoke and is super special to her.  Her brothers got it for her for her birthday and she screamed with excitement.

She really wanted a puppy for her birthday.  I figured this would have to do!

Singing with her new Sophia purse boombox, while Finn plays with the puppy and her box full of ponies looks on

Playing with her puppy named JJ

All backed up and feeling pretty miserable to her tummy

She has pretty much dropped naps.  Once or twice a week she will take a nap in her crib (yes, she is still in a crib!) and that works.  But sometimes we will find this.  Poor little girl had been asking to go to bed, but I had been hoping to get her to last a little longer.  So, she pulled up her blankie and went to sleep on the floor.  She LOVES her blankie and cannot sleep without.  I've never had a kid this attached to something for so long before.  It's sweet but at the same time that blanket is getting awfully dirty and icky pretty quick these days.

Yes, I am brainwashing her to be excited to meet all of her friends at Disney World some day

My helpful sioux chef eating the parmesan cheese straight from the bowl

She has been practicing writing her name.  I'm super impressed.  Oh, and she's a righty.  How'd we end up with another one of those?  (Reid and I are both lefties, and Finn is our only left-handed child.)

We love our little peanut!  Yes, that's the nickname that I have given her and she owns it.  She will say, "I not Bree.  I a peanut!"  I'm so glad we have her and I certainly couldn't imagine our family without her.  Happy Birthday sweet girl! Slow down just a little for me, ok?