BRITTA: Eight Months Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- Our little girl is getting stronger every day. We adore her. We spent the beginning of the month in Texas for a family reunion and she loved playing in the water and being smothered with hugs and kisses by everyone. 

I think this might have been her first swing ride. She was just "eh" about it.
and not quite sturdy enough for me to push her with any force. 

EIGHT Month Old Stats:

• none this month

Sleeping: Starting to phase down to just one nice, long nap. I put her down for the nap around Noon and she goes to bed at seven.  

Wearing: 9-12 month clothes. Sometimes 18 months. 

Interesting tidbits: She's getting stronger and can push herself back up now when she falls over sitting up. 

She constantly amazes me with how good natured she is. We sat for two hours the other day at Paige and Marin's ballet lessons. She didn't even cry once. 

The ladies at the gym (in the kids zone (aka babysitting area)) are constantly doting over her and noticing how much stronger she's getting too. I love going to pick her up after a work out, and they tell me how much they love her. It's nice to know she's in good hands for an hour or so. 

She loves her sisters so much and lights up and laughs when she sees them. They can make her laugh like no one else. 

She loves splashing in the water. 

Still no teeth. It's a mystery. 

PAIGE: Three Years Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- This past year has been filled, and I mean FILLED, with Paige's personality blossoming. I also recently re-read her two-year-old update and how I basically thought her sweet, innocent, pre-two-year-old-self could do no wrong. Well, the second this sweet, innocent girl turned two, the terrible two's snuck right on in... Two-year-old Paige was a mischievous, wild, energetic (sometimes crazy), lovable, naughty, messy, CRAZY (I mentioned that, right?) little thing. But oh is she cute. I never want to forget our little Paigey's sweet little voice and her genuine laughter and love for life. 

She's been Marin's inseparable side-kick and playmate this past year and she couldn't wait to turn three. She's taken on the role of a big sister with ease and can make Britta laugh like no one else. Actually, she makes us all laugh like no one else. The girl likes to be "silly" and make people laugh. She'll say the most odd-ball things to get a laugh, goofily dance around, and use silly voices to turn heads. She's the queen of playing make-believe and she and Marin could play dolls and any made-up game or imaginary scene ALL DAY LONG. If she's absent a doll, she'll find anything around her and bring it to life. She'll often use her food to talk to each other, or personify my make-up brushes while I'm getting ready. Her play objects have no limit. She loves playing with dolls the best and pretending  to be princesses. If Marin isn't around, she'll bring me a doll and say, "Mommy, make it talk." (I hate playing pretend, by the way, so it takes everything I have to make a doll talk for a few minutes). 

Paige and Marin could also spend hours performing for each other. We'll often find them standing on the fireplace ledge, which is their stage, saying things like, "Now announcing my favorite sister... MARIN...." and then Marin will proceed to the stage where she'll perform something and then announce Paige up on stage. It's quite darling and very entertaining. 

She loves to sing and dance and anything related to music. When Isaac plays his saxophone, she'll often run to his feet to sit and listen to him play. She loves dancing with Isaac and having him dip and spin her around. When Marin won't go run errands with Isaac (she's a big mommy's girl), Paige will jump at any chance to go somewhere with him.   

Soon after she turned two, we put her in a "big girl bed." And something happened. My sweet little girl, who has ALWAYS (even as a newborn) been a good sleeper, decided she did not like sleeping through the night. On top of that, she also stopped napping (or at least it was impossible to keep her in her "big girl bed" for nap time, so we just threw them out the window). Besides a handful of nights this entire year, Paige has NOT slept through the night, often waking up two, three, or sometimes four times. You can imagine what this will do to a person, night after night. I'm pretty sure it has aged me. I've often looked at myself in the mirror this past year and thought how "haggard" I look. Oh, it's the worst. Every time she wakes up, she comes down to our room and will tell us she's thirsty, wants me to hold her, or some other random thing. She generally goes right back to sleep once we take her back to her room, but it's made this past year a little rough on me. I'm usually exhausted, snappy, and very low on patience. Add a new baby into the mix (who actually sleeps very well, thank goodness), and I feel like I most certainly wouldn't win any mother of the year awards. I'm hoping this third year of life for my little Paigey can somehow produce excellent sleeping. At least she tells me it will. She's very aware that I'm not a fan of her nighttime wakings, and always tells me she "will sleep through a night." ("tonight" is "a night" to her. "Mommy, I want you to sleep by me a night.") Ah... one day. One day, I'll miss it. Right? 

  

Paige wanted a strawberry cake with rainbows, so that's what she got. Kind of. 

This cake was a group effort. Isaac even helped me frost it. Compared to last year's watermelon cake, I'm very proud of how this one turned out. It was A LOT of work. 

THREE YEAR STATS: 

• XX lbs. (67%)  

• XX (67%) 

EATING: She's such a good eater. She'll pick an apple, peach or orange over a cookie any day. It's quite remarkable. 
SLEEPING: You likely read my rant on this in the above paragraphs.   
WEARING: 3T. 
INTERESTING TIDBITS: She has an attachment to a little gray fuzzy blanket she got when she was born. One side is gray and white polka dots, the other side gray and white plaid. It's been washed a million times and is no longer even that soft, but she can't sleep without it (she has... but it's not our favorite thing when she wakes up in the middle of the night without it). 

-Last night she came down to our room approximately five times. The second time, we hadn't even gone to bed yet ourselves and Isaac came into our room to find Paige curled up on the rug on our bedroom floor. She somehow snuck by us in the family room and came into our room and fell asleep. 

-Paige sometimes gets the names of colors mixed up. She has a hard time with green and orange for some reason. Tonight I asked her if she wanted a sandwich or a quesadilla for dinner (I usually ask them if they want white or orange cheese, but didn't this time), and she responded, "I want a quesadilla! With green cheese!" ha ha