*sigh* (#2)

There have been a lot of "sighs" lately in my life. Brynn will be turning 3 next month! I cannot believe my baby girl is hitting her 3rd year of life already. Time ticks by so quickly anymore and I cannot do anything to stop it. She is starting to outgrow naps, which I am not really ready for, and honestly, I don't like it. She "thinks" she doesn't need a nap, but truthfully, she still does because she becomes super cranky and bawls her eyes out at the drop of a hat on these non-nap taking days. It's not fun. But, instead of forcing her to nap, we have now implemented "quiet" time up in her room. The rules are that she can read or play with a toy quietly but she must be on her bed and cannot wander around the house. She must wait in her bed until I come up and get her and tell her it's time to come downstairs. She seems okay with this. I will be interested to see if she starts taking naps again once she starts back into daycare and we're getting up earlier in the morning...hmmm

We are heavy into planning her third birthday party. She'll be inviting many of her friends from daycare this year, which is a first. We'll be having it at a local gym place similar to The Little Gym, except that it's a privately owned small business. She is very excited to have a big party and chose a Hello Kitty theme which she talks about non-stop. I know a mom from our daycare who makes cakes and she is going to make Brynn's Hello Kitty head/face cake, so that is exciting. We are saving that cake for our "family only" party the weekend after her real birthday. I am starting to put together ideas for the party favors for the kids and have a good start on those. I need to find HK gummies or some sort of treat with HK on them. I need to search online for that...

More than likely, she will be getting her ears pierced for her birthday this year. We went to the mall over the weekend and watched a little girl get her ears pierced so she could see what they do and she was confident she still wanted to get her ears pierced as well. I am a little nervous about it, but I am sure it will be fine. I don't know if she'll chicken out or not...and if she does, no big deal. We have traveled to Toys 'R Us, Target and Wal-Mart so she could look at things and figure out what she wanted to ask for for her birthday. She really wants a Barbie Doll--(the one that comes with a dolphin), which I think is really funny that she already noticed them. She also has asked for new outfits for her Baby Addy/Bitty Baby doll, princess dolls (the Disney princesses), and a Cinderella "barbie" that you can take in the tub. She was so excited to go and look at all the toys and it was nice to get ideas of what she thought she wanted. :)

At almost 3, Brynnie certainly is growing up on me. She says so many funny things, displays hilarious facial expressions, and talks as if she's so much older than she really is. She is doing very well recognizing letters, both capital and lower case. So far she can recognize: A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W, X, Y and Z. For lower case letters, she knows c, e, r, f, and i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, x, y, z. She can recognize all numbers 1-10 when seen on a puzzle, written down, or with her bath sponge numbers. She is always interested and has to know every sound or noise that she hears as well as identifying smells, good and bad. It's quite funny when she says, "Mom, Cammy (our cat) smells bad...her breath stinks!" The other day we were walking outside and she declared, "Mom, I smell something." I asked her what she smelled and she said "Chicken nuggets!" (it was really someone starting up their grill...)

Little Miss Independent: she is very bossy, curious and extremely driven. Her memory is excellent; she'll talk about things that happened months ago like it just happened yesterday--very good with details. She insists on doing things herself all the time. She is easily irritated by her brother, who has learned that he can annoy her and rubs it in her face whenever he can. Sometimes she gets aggressive with him, but most of the time, she plays the victim and blames everything on Baylen. (such a big sister!!) She is doing very well going potty and poop in the toilet. We have pee accidents from time to time, and Bee still wears a pull-up at night yet. There has been a day here or there where she simply regresses in the pee dept. for no apparent reason. She continues to be a night owl wanting to stay up late and hang out with us, but if it's a day she has not had a nap, the rule is she must go to be by 8 p.m., right after her bath up in her own bed, with no downstairs time. She seems to understand this and finds it "fair."

Her favorite shows continue to be Barney, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Farmyard, Dora the Explorer and Diego. This summer, I allow her to watch 2 shows a day max, sometimes three if I need to get dinner started and it's my only option.

Bee continues to be as tiny as ever, weighing in around 26.5 pounds STILL and wearing mostly size 2T and a few (very little) 3's in tops only. She wears a size 6.5 shoe.