Jessie is 3

Jessica Marie is 3 years old today.  Wow, how can that be??  On the one hand, it's difficult to remember life before Jessica, but on the other I still feel like a new parent.  I guess that's what parenthood is all about.  I've heard it said that there are long days with little ones, but short years & I would definitely agree with that statement.  So much for our family has changed in 3 years.  I've relaxed a lot about a lot of things & Jessica has taught us both to be more patient.  I would say there is much more laughter in our home thanks to her & lil' sis.  What can I say about life with our 3 year old??

Some of the things that I want to remember about this time is Jessica's absolute fascination with anything that I am doing.  If I wear a necklace, she wants to wear one.  If I want to put on makeup, she wants to wear some also.  If I go to the bathroom, she wants to go also...this may be too much for the blog readers, but she actually has climbed up on the potty with me & tried to pee-pee with me (sorry, that may be TMI, but it is funny, right?)  You all get the picture, no matter what I am doing, she wants to be doing it also.  She's my little pal all day long, especially now, since she will not nap.  I always have to give her little "jobs" to do like carrying laundry, cleaning with a swiffer, or cleaning up the floor with a towel.  She just wants to be helpful & praised for her contributions.  I've really been trying hard to let her help in her way & not in the way I think she should help.

Another thing I want to remember about her being 3 is how smitten with daddy she has become.  She & I have conversations in the car as we are running errands often focused on where daddy is, what he's doing, & if he's "hungy" or not.  (That's hungry for those of you that don't speak Jessie)  Sometimes she'll be looking out the window smiling & say randomly "I love daddy" or "Daddy takes me to swing".  It's very sweet.  She also looks at a wedding photo I have in my bedroom & says I'm a princess & Daddy is a prince.  She stated a week or so ago that she would "marry a prince just like Cinderella does".  (That is for sure a Jessie phrase, she often says she will do whatever just like so & so does)

Probably the other thing I want to remember & I should video them more often, is how funny the girls are when they play together.  Ella looks up to Jessie so much, I can hardly believe how much she idolizes Jessie. Anything/everything that Jessie does, Ella must do also, or else she's upset.  They roll around, make tents, forts, play dress up, & dance together all day long.  They are mostly sweet little friends.  Not that they don't have their times, trust me, I do have to scold them for hitting each other a fair amount, but mostly they chase each other & laugh together.  Jessie has become much sweeter to her little sister & always insists on kissing/hugging Ella before bed.  Jessie also always includes Ella in her payers.

As for Jessica herself, I'd say she's a mature & self confident child for 3 years old.  Fully potty trained & proud of it (she often will proclaim, she's going potty no potty seat).  Good at art & knows it.  She's tall for her age & I often get asked if my kids are 3 & 4 (not 2 & 3, like they actually are).  Jessie came home from school a few weeks ago telling me she's a smart girl...I was like yes, you are, but how do you know that?  She said Ms. Jen (her teacher) told her that.  Ok, so maybe we need to work on humility a little with her :)  She's a sassy little thing, but obedient *mostly*.  She has almost all of her books memorized (if I stop mid-sentence she can always finish them for me).  She can almost spell her name, they work on that at school & I've been reinforcing it as well.   She is in size 4T clothing, mostly.  She wears size 7/8 toddler shoes.  I think she weighs around 28 lbs or so, although, she moves so quick it's hard to tell.  Little girl is solid muscle & strong like you would not believe.  She has a love of water & often plays in the sink or we do experiments to determine what things sink or float, I'm serious we have spent hours doing this.

For me the best thing about having a 3 year old is all the little conversations that we have together.  It is so fun to hear what her thoughts are on a subject & to be reminded that the world is not as complicated as we adults tend to make it.  I also love to see her developing an interest in baking/cooking.  This was a big part of my childhood & still to this day a hobby, which I greatly enjoy.  I know I've bragged a lot about her in this write-up, but truly she can measure flour like a pro & break eggs into a bowl (come on, for a 3 year old, that's pretty good, right??)  Still working on getting her to consistently wear clothing at home, but she's doing so well in other areas, I just let her wear her undies around most days.  I know I've gone on for far too long, but I truly love this age & all the fun that we have together.  I would not be honest if I didn't say we still have our moments, but we love our wild girl Jessie so much that the tantrums are a small price to pay to enjoy time with our big girl.

For those of you that follow my blog, you will be disappointed there are no birthday photos of her yet.  I have a wonderful Cinderella themed photo shoot planned as soon as it is not freezing & raining.  I plan on taking her to a local mansion that looks like a castle & have her wear her Cinderella dress that she received for her birthday from us.  But I need some non-frigid weather & a little bit of sun to do them....so stay tuned!  I do, however, have a few pics I snapped in our yard last week of she & I together in what she calls her "Cinderella" dress.  It's blue so to her it's a Cinderella dress.  I literally only took pics for 10 min. on this afternoon, but with the sun filtering in through that tall tree out front, I thought I'd better go for it & I am glad I have these pics of us together.  They certainly aren't perfect, as it is difficult to do this using a tripod & timer, but to me they are a precious memory with my girl.  (if you see red mark on her right cheek, it's my lipstick :)

Here's her slideshow from the last year.  I couldn't think of any music to set the pics to besides Cinderella the soundtrack & Cinderella the song by Steven Curtis Chapman....it's a tear jerker, if you're not familiar with this one.  Enjoy a look back at our little Cinderella beginning when she turned 2 up until most recently!