Annie is **THREE!!**

Our Anne girl turned 3 on May 26. I think time flies by the most with her since she is in the middle. I just can hardly believe how big she is getting. She's at a really fun age and has such a sweet, spunky personality. Below are some things about her from 2.5 to 3, including the questionnaire I started with Henry when he turned 3. I love hearing what they answer for these!

1. What is your favorite color? PINK!!
2. What is your favorite toy? shopping cart, baby stroller (she loves to stuff all kinds of things in these and push them around the house and also outside)
3. What is your favorite fruit? blueberries (she really  loves all fruit-she's a great fruit eater)
4. What is your favorite tv show? Daniel Tiger (also Doc McStuffins, Minnie Mouse, Curious George)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? sandwich (pb/honey), cheese/crackers, yogurt (not sure these are actual favorites, but they are the kinds of things she eats daily!)
6. What is your favorite outfit? jammies
7. What is your favorite game? hide and seek
8. What is your favorite snack? Cheese-Its
9. What is your favorite animal? monkeys
10. What is your favorite song? Hey-oh, itsy-bitsy spider, Frozen CD (she calls it Elsa Anna and begs to listen to it)
11. What is your favorite book? Hide and Seek, That's Not My Dad, Corduroy
12. Who is your best friend? Owen and Connor
13. What is your favorite cereal? Rice Krispies (aka "Krispies"), Cheerios (aka "cheer-wha-woes)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Push the Zebra riding toy all the way down the driveway and then sit on it and ride it back to the garage. She is fast! Also loves chalk, bubbles, and playgrounds. She could swing for hours! She spots playgrounds everywhere as we drive and wants to go to them.
15. What is your favorite drink? milk (LOVES), juice (rare, so it's a big treat-she calls lemonade "lemon juice")
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? pink blankie, Minnie Mouse stuffed animal
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal (Krispies, Cheerios), doughnuts (rare, so it's a big treat-favorite is chocolate with sprinkles). She's not a big breakfast eater. I can usually get her to eat part of a banana and sometimes graham cracker or certain granola/breakfast bar type things. Usually just a few bites, though, and I'm kind of making her. She's not big on muffins, toast, etc.
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Chick-fil-A
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a mommy  

-Finally fully potty trained at Spring break (3/17). It just clicked! She had peepee down before 2.5, but resisted the other for a while. We finally got her little system worked out, so I think that helped a lot. We put the frog potty in the back of the car, and used it a ton at first, esp on that trip. I wish I had counted how many times she went on our way to/from Iowa. As we drove north, it got FREEZING. We drove til like 2am, so at midnight we had to stop for gas and all the kids were asleep. Annie woke and said she needed to go potty. She had on footie PJ's so we had to go to the frog potty, fully unzip, and potty with freezing temps and wind while I wrapped a blanket around her. She was crying her eyes out and it was terrible! You may not fully understand that if you've never experienced their weather, but it's forever in my memory! She is quite self-sufficient  now and can pull down/up her pants, get on the potty herself, flush, wash hands, etc. In February when I was desperate for her to have poop success and treats, bribes, punishments weren't working, we put the undies away. She earned her princess undies back when she used the potty. She also got to use her make up when she went, and that was a BIG deal for her!:) I was teaching class on 2/8 and heard a little knock. It was her teacher bringing Annie by to report to me that she'd had poop success (teachers never come, but they knew how hard we'd been working and that Annie and I BOTH needed to celebrate this success), so Annie said it really loud and  my whole class heard the report!!! She was so proud and they all got the biggest kick out of it! In a few years I hope they don't use that for blackmail!:) She also will sit and go sometimes when she is not even trying and will look in the potty and say, "How did that happen!!??" She loves it when she goes a lot and will squeal in delight and talk about how it's a "daddy one!!" and say "I love the big ones!!" That is a lot of potty info, but it was a big deal in our lives over the past 6 months!!

-Annie had a great (last) year in school nursery. It's neat that she and Ruby got to be together daily, and her teachers say she was always sweet and loving to her sister. She has not shown jealousy like I thought she might, but instead it just a little mamma all the more. Next year she will fully transition to the Pre-K class, and she visited there some this year. I think she will really flourish there. She says she's excited to "sit a chair and and do work and color". That is Pre-K from her perspective anyway! She already loves circle time when she gets to go, and she knows several of the songs they sing. I don't work at all with her on academic stuff, but I noticed her touching and counting accurately at Christmas (to 5), and she can just count aloud to 25. I also noticed her using Henry's scissors great on 1/19. She cut little slits all the way around a piece of paper like fringe. She loves to color and is very intentional about it-she makes little concentrated marks all over the paper with different colors. She doesn't do wild scribbling. She notices the letter "A" everywhere and says, "Hey! That's MY letter!"

-When we get home from school about 1:15, Annie lays down for nap right a way. She has started to sleep shorter lengths of time and is usually awake by 3, but she goes to bed by 7:30 each night, so she's not needing a huge nap I guess. When she wakes, she calls for us right away (mommy! I'm ready to get out!!) rather than playing in her bed like I'd prefer. :) She usually sits on my lap and watches a show with me and Henry. She loves to snuggle! When she watches shows that ask questions, she always answers the TV:)

-Annie is a sweet, loving girl. She always says, "I love you SO much!"and loves to be held and to cuddle. She wants to give everyone in the family hugs and kisses before bed (hug. hug. hug. kiss!) and wants to hug and kiss her teachers when she leaves school (often her kiss lands at her eye level which is right at the teacher's tummy-haha!). She wants to hug AND kiss her bestie Owen before she leaves, too. When I come in to nurse Ruby, the bigger kids are in high chairs eating snack, so she talks to me from there. She is turned so she can't actually see me, so she just says, "Mommy?? I love you SO much!" Her teachers get the biggest kick out of it. She was saying it so much there for a while that Henry was getting fed up. He would say, "Uhhhh! I KNOW that! Why do you keep saying that??" But often times they will be at the art table or playing together in silence, and I will hear her say, "Henry? I love you SO much!" and he will say, "I love you, too". She will then sometimes come back with, "I  love you so much again". She also sometimes says, "I want to tell you a secret. I love you SO much and God loves you SO much!" One day after a rough time of bumps and falls, I had picked her up and she said, "Mommy? When you hold me it feels better."

-She is very much a girly girl and loves all things pink, princess, makeup, chap stick, lotion, nail polish, etc. She notices every booboo and blimish on others. She loved her cousin's Nutcracker performance and talked all about it afterward. She is a little mama and loves her play babies as well as her sis. She wraps them up and carries them around, shushes them and puts them to sleep, cuddles them, pushes them in the stroller and pushes them around, etc. She has a particular "pink baby" at school that she keeps up with all day. I am AMAZED at how innate this is. I haven't taught her any of that, and a lot of it began way before we had a actual baby in the house! She comforts her babies and will say, "Oh sweetie, sweetie! It's ok sweetie!" She has several names for her babies including-Roast Beef (from this little piggie went to market), Charis (the other baby in nursery that is Ruby's age) Anna, Hans, and Elsa. She also likes to rub noses with us and say, "Uggamugga".

-That being said, I must also share that she has a spunky attitude and will take up for herself in a minute! She has a LOUD voice and knows how to use it! We often have to get her to re-say something using her "nice words" which she can easily do. Our friend Ben says she reminds him of a "sassy Precious Moments doll!" She is the reason there is a cardboard barrier between her and Henry in the car. She has to fight to talk half the time, so she will start a story with 'one time' then brother will start talking and she will scream 'no!!!!!!!!!! it's MY TURN!!' She has a serious independent streak and will often re-do what I've just done if she wanted to do it herself. (like pull up her pants after pottying. If I do it and she wanted to she will pull them back down and then immediately back up!). If my attention is divided she will say, "Mom, listen to my story!!" and when she want me to watch her do something, and I don't give her 100% of my attention, she says, "No! With your eyes! Look at my face!" While her attitude and sometimes trying personality can be a challenge, I think she was a lot like I was as a kid! I can appreciate that she will be a strong, independent girl one day and just try to remind myself of this in the  midst of time-outs and tears!

Here are a few random things that will mean something to us years from now, but they may not make much sense to others!:)
Secret place (often we have "lost" things bc she has put them in a 'secret place')
Actually... (often how she starts a story)
Princess no-night for Snow White
Schmar-mellow for Marshmellows
Check-up for ketchup (Steven tried to help her with this one time and she said, "I can't say that word. I'm just a little girl")
Huh?? Huh?? Huh??
Will sit and "pick her toes" (ie clean out anything between them)
Good hide and seek player! Quiet and still for a long time!
Little banshee-running wild before bed. Acts like rules don't apply.
Prays "and I not hit and I not say bad"
She gets in trouble for talking about poop and also for calling others "bad" and of course for hitting.
You gonna punishment me? You gonna spank me?
Donald Duck for Donald Trump
Kay-rowns and colorings are her words for crayons
Can I play a little bit?
LOVES the windows down in the car and the wind in her hair. Will grin and squeal about this!
Says, "Amazing!" from Frozen
Sometimes sings "we will rock you" from her bed
Shortens words (uniquely Annie)-Danny Tiegs, Gramps, Pegs, I need to go pot, toilet pape, 
Favorite part of Chattanooga trip was riding on the luggage cart at the hotel
Hey, we got a problem
I'm gonna cut you with fire!! (not sure where she got this, but she she pretends to fight and slices the air with her hands and says this kind of like karate! It's hilarious!)
So guys. What do you want to do this summer? (Said this sitting at the table with Henry and Steven one night)
Uh oh to the spettie ohs (for uh-oh spaghetti-o)
You're a cutie, daddy. You're a sweet girl, daddy.
I got a booboo. I think it was the jets! (hates our jets in the tub and blamed them for an unrelated booboo!)
Special time with Ms. Faith (her most fave teacher) after school. Spoiled her with playground, ice cream, and time at her house. Asks every morning, "Faif uh be here?" When it is a yes on Wednesday, she squeals "Yay!! I love faif!"
Hippie toes for tippy toes
Went to pick strawberries and she kept referring to it as "strawberry field forever"
Just a little bit some more, ok?
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, halleluja, crazy the Lord! (instead of praise ye the Lord)
Happy cake, happy cake-for patty cake, patty cake baker's man song
Oh, no. What we gonna do? What we gonna do, mom?
The word "poohey-gee-on" is one she made up and uses all the time. It has become normal in our house, and Steven even made up a game to go along with it. She says it all the time and for all kinds of different things. We all get a kick out of it.
She slept late recently and woke up asking, "Are the bad guys gone?" Steven realized she had been dreaming and showed her around the house. She looked around dismayed and said, "There aren't any bad guys here!" I asked her what did the bad guys do, and she said, "Fight!"
We can give her several tasks in a row to do (clean up xyz) and she can do it all easily without asking again what we said (ie can multi-task) whereas Henry can only hear one thing at a time and has to ask us over and over again what we said. Typical male/female thing!!