ada charlotte {3 years}

Beautiful Ada,

This age is quickly becoming my favorite. People talk about "terrible twos" and "threenagers" and I do definitely see moments of crazy, but there's just so much to LOVE! You are talking SO much, you are so sweet and loving, you are really solidifying some of the habits and manners we've been teaching you, you are funny, and you're becoming independent/self-sufficient in so many ways. It never stops blowing my mind how incredible it is to watch you learn and grow. You make me so proud, no matter how big or small your accomplishment! I have to tell you several times a day, "I just love you!" because I do! And I love that you've started saying the same thing to me randomly. I'm forever grateful you're mine, sweet girl!


Stats

• 29.2 pounds (36%) -- You've gained exactly one pound in the last 6 months, which dropped you down percentile-wise (used to be 50ish%)
• 35.75 (8%) -- You've grown 1-1.25 inches in the last 6 months and dropped pretty drastically from 27%...we'll see what Dr. Rick says about your percentile drops!
• You fit in most 2T-3T stuff, but as always, we're still holding onto the smaller stuff as long as we can! It does get tricky when your dresses become shirts, because sometimes you still act like they're dresses -- aka, you don't want to put on pants! Honestly, getting you to put on real clothes can be such a battle. You much prefer to be in dress-ups or even just sleeveless shirts or dresses, which we don't let you wear outside the house, so it's just funny to me that you want to wear them all the time inside the house (funny and also drives me nuts, because it can be a strugggggggle to get you to finally put a shirt on under the sleeveless option).
• No new teeth -- still 16. Apparently you are supposed to get your second molars between 23 and 33 months, but no sign of them yet! Makes sense, since you didn't get your first teeth until 13-14 months (the website says those ones come at 6-12 months). Guess it's something to look forward to! 😂

Milestones

• We potty trained you! About 6 weeks ago, and it went ridiculously well. You had an accident the first pee of the first day of training, and then pretty much went in the toilet forever after that. You've had a few accidents here and there, but it's always when there's something big (like a party) going on -- you can't be bothered to go until the last minute, and by that point, you can't hold it anymore! We're still doing diapers for naps and nights (size 5), but one of the very first things you say when we get you up is "Can I have some undies?" I think you love being grown up in this way. You still get excited every time you finish and you frequently solicit praise for going "all by yourself" :)
• You started preschool! We weren't even thinking about it because you are young, but a few months ago a pre-k mama in the ward reached out and asked if we wanted you to go for about 2 hours 2x/week. We weren't entirely sure because you are still young and it's my last few months of just you, but when I stepped back and realized it's only 4 hours/week and you were going to LOVE it, we decided to put you in! And you DO love it, and so does mama! It's nice to have a couple hours where you're learning/socializing/having fun without me and where I can get things done without you haha :)
• You had your FIRST official haircut! I cut a little mullet action around 9 months, and I cut off your dark bangs around 16 months, but this was your first haircut someone else did. It looks pretty much the same, but a little more even I guess. I still can't decide whether or not it was really necessary 😂

Favorite Things/Obsessions

• Color: pink or purple
• TV show: Boss Baby, Little Baby Bum, Spirit (the horse show)
• Food: you'll really eat just about anything (unless you've found that you don't like them -- we keep trying with watermelon and potato salad, but they're no-go's for you!), but you're quite a fan of taquitos and pizza. You also really loved zoodles when we tried them recently!
• Movie: Frozen, Moana, Mulan, Despicable Me, Rock'n'Royals (barbie movie), and your obsession this last week has been Hercules
• You still love dancing (and you still dance to Just Dance videos, but now you call them "the panda songs" because some of the videos have a panda dancer 😂). Lately you've even started to follow the dancer!
• You also seem to like singing! You'll sing along with your movie songs, especially the ones on the barbie movie since it's specifically about singing.
• For a while there, you wore your swimsuit literally every day. When I broke you of that habit, you fought it HARD! Basically you loved wearing it because it has a tiny tutu on it and so it was your go-to dancer outfit. Now that we got you a for-real ballet outfit for your birthday, I'm sure you'll be wearing THAT daily.
• You love filling boxes/bags/baskets with things. You also get super frustrated when you can't fit everything you want to fit in there!
• You're super cute with baby sister! You'll give my bump hugs and kisses and you'll say, "Baby Holly loves me." You talk about how you'll share with her and love her when she comes. I hope it's true! 😂

Funny Things You Say

• You might be done with this now, but for a while you'd say "too many" instead of "a lot" or "so many" -- "Mom, look! Too many sheep!"
• For a while, you called hiccups "wakeups"
• Whenever the sun shines on you while we're driving, you yell at it, "Go away, sun!!" You really hate it 😂
• You say "blocked" instead of "locked"
• For a while, you added on "forever" to sentences and I'm not quite sure what you meant by it -- you'd say things like "I wanna wear my bunny dress forever" and "run with Dad forever"
• Before we potty trained you, sometimes when you were pooping we'd ask, "Are you pooping?" and you'd always say, "I'm not" while grunting. Hahaha 😂
• We have a robo vacuum named Jaws, and sometimes you ask to turn him on. One day I told you, "Jaw's is sleeping right now. He's nocturnal." And you replied, "He's not a turtle."
• Oh my goodness -- it was so cute! For a while, every time anyone would say "You're such a big girl!" you'd say, "No, I'm little!" I loved it :) You've now embraced being called a big girl, though, which is also cute :)
• One day, when we were explaining the godhead to you, we said something like, "The godhead is made up of God, Jesus, and the Spirit," and you said, "A horse!" Because we said spirit, and to you, "spirit" means the horse on the tv show! 😂
• When Dad was singing I am a Child of God to you one day, he sang the third verse (which we typically don't sing). When he sang "rich blessings are in store," you said, "Walmart is the store!"
• You say "sprinkles" instead of "sprinklers," so we'll pass some and you'll say, "Look! Sprinkles!" and it's just so funny :)
• I'm pretty sure you used to say "forgot," but now you always say "got for" -- "Oh! I got-for the plate!"
• Idk where you got it, but sometimes you'll say, "You're the weirdest!" which is just funny.
• You use "last night" to mean pretty much anything in the past. You're always saying, "I watched Mulan last night!" Even if we haven't watched Mulan in 5 days.
• SEVERAL months ago, we watched Leap. Ever since then, you have added the phrase, "You are nothing!" to your vocabulary. I stopped letting you watch it months ago, but you still say the phrase, and I can't figure out how to get you to give it up completely! We've tried ignoring it, punishing it, and giving you nice phrases to say instead: "You are wonderful/incredible/smart/brave/kind/sweet/beautiful/handsome/a child of God." It still hasn't eliminated the phrase from your vocabulary (you especially like to whip it out when you're mad at one of us), but you do say all those nice things now, too. Sometimes you're alternating between mean and nice: "You are nothing! You are beautiful! You are nothing!"
• Around 2y9m, you started getting really good at asking politely for things rather than just demanding them, seemingly all in one day! In that same day, you started saying consistently, "sorry, mom, I didn't mean to" after bumping me a few times. So basically, lots of cuteness and politeness. 
• Lately, you do this TOTALLY TEENAGE thing where you go like "Ughhhhh okayyy." When we ask you to do something. It's funny because you really don't seem to have a problem doing it, but you sound all exasperated when you say it 😂

Random Tidbits

• In your 2.5yo post, you were still asking us to hold you to go down stairs almost every time, though you were completely capable of doing it on your own. Pretty much right after that, you started going down on your own. Just recently, we realized she always went upstairs on the same foot, and always went downstairs on the opposite foot. So we started practicing going up and down with the other foot. At first, it was SO FUNNY because it was like you had NO muscles in the opposite leg! Like you were learning to do stairs again! But we've only been doing it for a week or two now, and you're already much stronger in your less-dominant leg now.
• You're a little less insistent about it now, but even still you do this -- you prefer to wear mismatched socks. Like I'll pair them together as two white socks, but you'll grab one white sock and one grey sock 😂
• Your first words when you wake up are almost always "I love you, mom!" and "Can I have some undies?" 😂
• For a little while, we were working on memorizing scriptures, and it was so cute hearing you say the scriptures! But then you started fighting it super hard so we kinda gave up 😬 We'll have to get back to it!
• A couple months ago, you started trying to sing along during hymns at church. You'll hold the book and you'll "sing" though of course not the words -- you're basically just yelling out, sometimes the lyrics to Disney songs 😂😂 You don't sing every time, but it's quite cute when you do!
• Within the last few months, you seemed to develop a sense of fear. You used to watch movies no problem, and it's still mostly fine, but there are some times when you'll run up to me or snuggle up to me during a "scary" part.
• You got your nails painted at a birthday party, and you thought it was the greatest thing. Since then, I've painted your nails a couple times, and you still think it's the greatest thing. It's really cute :) I feel like it's such a grown up thing 😭😍
• Very recently, you're finally doing pretty good to hold hands (or at least stay close and listen pretty well) when we go to stores! It's so great! The biggest issue is those darn quarter candy machines in the entrance of Walmart -- you always want to stop and see if there are any lying around!
• You're also doing great sitting at the dinner table in a regular chair instead of your high chair! We were going to wait until you were actually 3 to make this transition, but you've sat there a few times in the last couple weeks and you're doing well :)
• Sometimes, when you can tell I'm upset (and you're already upset and usually crying), you'll say through your tears and a frown, "I love you, mama!" As if to say, "don't be mad at me!" It's very cute and somewhat frustrating because I feel like it means you think I don't love you when I'm upset.
• You're really good at cleaning up and putting things where they go! Especially if you want to watch a show and I tell you that your toys have to be cleaned up first. And especially when you're trying to prove to me I should let you watch a show so you clean up without being asked :)
• You can quote whole lines, paragraphs, and even whole books sometimes, and holy cow it is CUTE. You slur the words a little, but you say most or all of them, and with the inflections that Dad or I use when we read the books to you 😍

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "Your clothes are really pretty, and your hair is really neat, 

you look like a real prince, but you are a bum." They didn't get married after all.

"Elizabeth! You are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled,
and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come dressed like a real princess!"

• You're still a great little eater and usually willing to try anything. And if you're not willing, you usually come around when I tell you you can't have other parts of the meal if you don't at least try the new thing. And then once you try it, you almost always like it! However, no matter how many times we get you to try watermelon and potato salad, you're just not interested. So funny to me! 😂
• You're still typically in bed from 7:30pm to 7:30am, though usually only sleeping from 8:15/30pm to 6:30/7am. You have your nap from 12:45/1 until 2:30/3. However, you're skipping that nap more and more! We always do a napless Sunday with an early bedtime because of our church time, but other than that, you typically skip your nap 1-2x/week. We still do Crib90 regardless, though! :)

Love always,

Mama