Today my little girl turned three years old. THREE. Sometimes I still can’t believe it – I have kids. But to have a special little girl like CootieGirl makes it all the sweeter.

She dances.
She sings.
She twirls.
She runs.
She laughs.
She can be coy.
She can be stubborn.
She can be sweet.
She can be a terror.
She likes to help.
She likes to play.
She likes to give hugs.
She likes to ask “Why do you do that?”
She likes learning new words.
She likes to lick the spatula when I’m done making the cake/brownie batter.
She loves to go to the park.
She loves to watch her shows on tv (LazyTown is still her favorite).
She loves being a princess.
She loves her brother.
She loves her daddy.
She loves her mama.
And yesterday, she told Marmie that she loves Jesus.

She’s a joy and I love her to death, and I can’t believe she’s already three years old. It seems like she was just born yesterday!

This morning CootieGirl woke up in a great mood – that usually doesn’t happen. She hates waking up in the morning. Or, more specifically, she hates when we wake her up in the morning. This morning she woke up on her own and was in a GREAT mood.

“Guess who is coming to visit today?” I asked her as she laid on our bed. “Marmie!”

Her eyes got wide and she breathed, “Marmie!” and put her arms in the air in happiness.

Nothing beats a visit from Marmie – especially since she usually has GIFTS. *lol*

Here is CootieGirlin her Easter outfit. The outfit is compliments of Marmie and Pop.

Last night CootieGirl and I were watching Lazytown and in one of the dance numbers Sportacus jumps in the air and then does the splits. CootieGirl said, “I can do that!” and promptly started jumping around the room. Then the next thing I know she’s down on the floor executing a near perfect split. I was in shock. I didn’t know she could bend that far.

I sent her into the kitchen with a, “Show your daddy what you just did!” and she immediately did the splits for him in the kitchen.

When she came back into the living room she did another one. I told CootieDad that the minute we can afford it we should send her to gymnastics class to take advantage of her love for jumping around. CootieBoy too, since there’s nothing he loves more than a good tumble.

Last night CootieGirl entertained us tremendously by reading us a story. She pulled out her princess book and demanded that we stay silent whiel she told us the story. It started with “One day the princess,” and quickly veered out from there to include lions, planes, magic, lunch, jumping and laughing.

After a few minutes of barely being able to contain my laughter I whispered to CootieDad, “Can you grab the video camera?”

Normally when she sees the camera she clams up a bit or wants to become the cameraperson, but last night she was so engrossed in her story that she didn’t see CootieDad turn it on and point it towards her. For the next 3-4 minutes CootieGirl continued on with her story until finally I couldn’t stand it any more. I burst out laughing and told CootieGirl that I loved her and that she told good stories.

“I love me too, Mama,” came her instant reply.

So this weekend was kind of rough with CootieGirl. She had a LOT of temper tantrums which is uncharacteristic for her. Usually she’s so even-keeled but everything set her off this weekend.

She had a busy weekend – we went to the park a couple of times, she worked in the backyard with CootieDad a lot, we baked cookies, she had a bath, we went to church, we played, we watched movies, we took naps, she took a ride in the wagon.

And yet whenever a decision had to be made – food, clothing, going to bed, changing her diaper, which blanket to lay over her, not hitting her brother, which tv show to watch, naptime – everything became a battle.

Last night she yelled at her dad because she wanted a piece of cake on a BIG plate and he gave her a small plate. He said no, and she went off on him. I actually had to put her on the naughty step for 2-3 minutes, something I haven’t had to do in forever. She sat quietly and at the end of the two minutes I asked her to apologize to CootieDad for yelling at him. She refused, so after a few minutes of quietly talking I took her up to bed. She had another conniption fit. She stalled going to bed by asking to go potty, and after 10 minutes of sitting there I stood her up to put her pull-up diaper back on. She started screaming again, so CootieDad came upstairs. I was gratified when she ran to him and quietly cried, “Daddy, I’m sorry.”

A few minutes later we got her into her bed and she eventually settled into sleep. This morning upon waking up, the first thing she said to CootieDad was “Where’s the cake?”