Wednesday, September 2, 2015

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" {Carly 3 1/2 Years}

I'm not sure whether to begin by saying I LOVE CARLY AT THREE YEARS OLD or to begin by saying THREE HAS TURNED OUT TO BE THE BEST AGE EVER.


So I'll say both. ;)

Every time I would complain about the baby stage to my Mama followed by an expression of utter guilt that I wasn't enjoying "every minute" of it she would always say that during childhood, each passing year just got better.  So far, she's been totally right (what else is new?).

I am quite certain I love everything about Carly.  We just click.  We think alike, speak alike (okay...she just copies what she hears out of my mouth), we have similar interests and simply similar personalities.  I hope that she has the same desire I did to always let Mom be a best friend!

Carly is a bit dramatic, a bit strong-willed, a bit emotional but ultimately driven by her ration and her thoughts (for as much as a three-year-old can be).  She is incredibly sensitive, compassionate, understanding, willing, helpful & eager.


I love Carly's ability to communicate.  Not that her pronunciation is perfect (because its far from it) but her vocabulary and her understanding of concepts is remarkable to me.  For example, she is great at reporting the difference of an emergency vs something that is against the rules.  If Luke has somehow found himself an outlet, has found his way on top of the table, is playing in the toilet, Carly will come running and say, "we have a-mer-ja-see!"  If Luke is pulling on the curtains, playing in the potted plants, pulling hair or throwing his food, she reports that Luke is disobeying.  I love that she understands the difference and can communicate that.

Independent. Is that what you call someone who can do everything "alla by my-surse (myself)?" Unless of course she is needing attention, and then she needs help all the time "because I am a baby right now." She can dress herself, put on her shoes, unlock the door, go outside, open the car door, crawl into her carseat and buckle her top buckle.


Helpful. Carly loves to be a "big helper" and immensely enjoys being praised for doing so. Sometimes she professes that she needs a TREAT because "I'm such a big helper, though!"  She helps clear the dishwasher, puts her own folded clothes away (when she feels like it) and after a meal can clear her dish, open the dishwasher and place it inside.  She is very willing to help me when my hands are full (although sometimes her fingers get tired of holding her crafts from church, her bouquet of flowers she just picked or her toys) by grabbing something I've dropped, running back up stairs for an item, etc. Just in the last month she began actually being of assistance in picking up her toys.  It's been really nice to have an extra set of hands and I've PROMISED myself that I will find balance between having realistic expectations of how much the eldest child should contribute/help and when I am demanding too much.  And...you are welcome to call me out on it if you feel my expectations ever become to high.

That promise doesn't stem from my own eldest-child scaring, by the way...I loved having more responsibilities than my siblings...it gave me a weird sense of self esteem or something. 

Carly plays with her MagiClip dolls what seems like every minute she is at home.  She loves jumping on beds, playing chase, getting tickled, wearing her princess dresses (she prefers her "Queen Elsa Dress" and is in it every waking moment of time we are inside our house.  She recently added princess jammies to her in-the-house wardrobe, as well).  She wants me to play with her all the time but understands I have other responsibilities to balance as a mother and therefore is perfectly content to play on her own for semi-long periods of time.  She loves to hide under her bed at night with her Daddy and requests that I find them by asking Simba & Nala plush toys "where is my baby kitten?"  Her favorite book right now is Madeline; but it seems to change weekly.  She loves the movies, Mary Poppins & Sound of Music (which was intentionally introduced after she fell in love with MP) and always always becomes a character in the story, singing & dancing right along with everyone else.

She talks a lot about when she will marry her prince and actually took it upon herself to make a veil out of my curtains Luke pulled down.  She will ask to pick flowers 100% of the time, melts down when she can't do something on her own that she seemingly expects she should be able to do and she will eat just about anything we put in front of her. She LOVES chocolate milk...and all things with sugar in them.  We can get her to do anything with bribery of a treat or the threatening of taking away her princesses.  We try not to use those tactics in parenting much, however, largely because she is such a reasonable communicator.

I could go on and on about how thoughtful she is...how often she expresses that she loves us...how she adds on a prayer for someone who has recently been sick to every prayer she hears...that she loves going to church, playing with friends, SWIMMING...how often she talks about her family (particularly her Grandparents and her cousins, Cora & Jackson)...or that she had real tears streaming down her face last month while requesting to move to Iowa.  Actually, I feel a bit bad that I have so much to say about Carly in comparison to my recent post on Luke.  I love them both the same, of course, but I think when the first child reaches new milestones, us parents are just so amazed at what they know, what they say and how they think that it's fun to report on!


I just had no idea a three-year-old could be so fun, so precious & so easy.




No comments:

Post a Comment