CMD and DRD: 3 Years Old (+ one month)

At their birthday celebration at school (C w/ pink crown). Friday afternoons are tiring : )

Their birthday celebration at home the morning after we moved.

Alright, so I'm a little behind this year. Tonight was my deadline to get this in (and let's be honest, it is actually march 10...how freakin' embarrassing is that? it would be in earlier if Lila actually SLEPT).

Both of you
• Your favorite word is “Why.” You ask it 25 times a day. You turn it into a 4 syllable word. You say it with a bit of a whine.
• You like to play ‘baby.’ We try to discourage you from it at our house but you get free reign at my mom’s house. You like to suck on pacifiers, drink out of bottles, and sit in bouncy chairs. You think it is a blast.
• Your favorite activities:
o Going to the park—climbing on anything, swinging on the monkey bars, sliding, etc.
o Arts and crafts of just about any kind, especially beading
o Swimming
o Gymnastics
• You aren’t yet into more of the ‘girly’ things that people do. We gave you dolls, moses baskets, and baby bjorns when Lila B was born and you liked them for about two days. You love strollers but mostly because you like to push them around with a vengeance. The dolls just end up being pains because they fly out of the strollers. You also don’t love dress up yet. You got tutus from my mom for your birthday and you wear them (nothing better than a see-through-tutu over Thomas the train boy briefs) but you are much more likely to want to wear the giraffe costume.
• You love school. When I ask you who you played with at school you usually answer “Hayden” “Cole” or “Zach.” You clearly have good taste because they are the cuties of the class. Lucy, Hayley, and Hannah are a few of the girls you like to hang with..
• You don’t watch much tv, but when you do it is either sports or Blues Clues. “A Clue! A Clue!” Elmo’s World is still popular, but certain things in Elmo scare the hell out of you. You have watched Dora once but you didn’t really take to it.
• You are starting to ask questions that are hard for me to answer. “How do I get to heaven?” “How does a baby get in your belly?” “Where was I? (Whenever I talk about anything I did before you were born).
• You are very into Obama and his daughters. If you see a picture of Obama you’ll yell “I see Obama!!!!!!!!” Almost like “I spy.” You always ask me about Sasha and Malia and you want to know which one is the big one, which one plays on the basketball team, etc.
• You love your little sister. In the hospital it was C who was all over her, and lately it has been D who has been incredibly focused on her. But both of you accepted her immediately as part of the family. You often remind me not to ‘forget her’ and only occasionally do you ask me to ‘drop her’ so I can help you with something. (C did tell me the other day that “I want the next one to be a boy” but I can’t really blame her for wanting to add some variety into the mix).
• You recently started asking to nap in separate rooms. When I told Andrew he said “I don’t know how I feel about that. It sort of makes me sad.” (It makes me sad because you nap much longer when you nap separately, and I keep thinking of all the hours of peace and quiet I may have lost in the past three years because I didn’t have separate rooms to put you in). Not to worry though, you still yell through the walls to each other. But I think you just like a little alone time to do your things, and I understand completely.
• You adore each other. It is like you are wired to love each other. When you nap in separate rooms you wake up calling not for me but for each other. You want to know exactly what the other one did, down to “Did Charlotte use this toothbrush?” “Did Dylan ask you to help her onto the potty?” “Which chair did Charlotte sit in?” You like to be apart for a little bit but are thrilled to be reunited. If one of you naps too long the other gets bored and wants to go in and wake her sister. You’ll lie for each other to get the other out of trouble (even if she is in trouble for injuring you. You are generally willing to share just about anything with each other—you’ll even give your last cracker or cookie to the other. We are so used to you being generally very nice to each other that most of it escapes our notice, but every once in a while something happens that makes me realize just how much you love each other. The other night D was kind of melting down because she wanted me to pick her pjs and I was in the living room feeding LBD. All of a sudden C lumbers in carrying this huge drawer. She’d brought the pajama drawer into the living room. She says “Here Dywan, now Mommy can pick your PJs out. And I put a diaper in there too.” We almost cried it was so sweet. I feel so lucky that you love each other so much. And I worry I will do something to come between the two of you.

Charlotte

• You have this funny voice you sometimes use where you crinkle your nose and raise your front lip when you speak. When you speak like this you often end your sentences with “So, um…” You say some of your sweetest things in this voice.
• You are still obsessed with pink. You often look like a bottle of Pepto Bismal.
• Your bedtime ritual includes getting as many books as you can get in your bed, as many animals as you can get in your bed, and as many blankets you can get in your bed. You have usurped a few of the ‘loveys’ that Lila has gotten as gifts (you do promise that you are just ‘borrowing them’ or ‘keeping them for her.’) You also want ‘new water’ each time and you insist that I zip your crib tent “inside” so you can unzip it yourself.
• You love to sing the “Shabbat song.” You love Friday night Shabbat. You get up, clap, and dance around.
• You get upset when my hair is not in a ponytail. Or when I’m wearing something you don’t like. You’ll kind of shake your head and say “Mommy, don’t wear that.” It is like fast forwarding to my future.
• You are hitting the threes with a vengeance. You can be a little difficult. Sometimes your reactions to the consequences are pretty funny. “I want to make a deal.”
• At least you are learning a little about your own emotions and what leads you to your occasional tantrums. The other day you were throwing a bit of a tantrum and I was asking you to calm down. Upset, you said “I’m trying to stop whining but I can’t! I can’t stop whining. Can you please help me stop whining?” Then when you worked yourself into a crying tizzy you started asking, “Can you please help calm me down?” Of course I did.
• You are a parrot (your teachers agree). You pick up phrases and you use them. Most of the time in the right way but sometimes just a bit off, which makes for very funny results. We took a book away from you at bedtime and for 30 minutes you yelled “It’s no big deal! I can handle it! Give me the book back!”
• You love mermaids. You call everything a mermaid…princesses are “mermaids with skirts.’ The princess diapers I broke down and let you buy are “mermaid diapers.” You don’t know what Cinderella’s name is so you have called her “Samir” (because you have a teacher Samir and a teacher Ariel, and you know that the Little Mermaid is named Ariel so I guess you just assume that all ‘mermaids’ have teachers’ names). I want to laugh out loud when you call it the “Samir diaper” and I will cry the day you figure out her real name.
• You like things to go your way. One day we decided to flip a coin to determine who would go to the hardware store with Andrew. I asked you which side you wanted, heads or tails. Your answer: “I want the side that says I get to go with Daddy.” Or when we were splitting a cupcake one day and you wanted me to split it “this way” (which basically meant you got the top with all the frosting and D would just get the bottom—nice try). When we bathe at night you always want to get out second so you’ll say “Do eeny meeny miny mo and end with Dylan.”
• Your favorite book to bring into bed is “Busy Busy Town.”
• You are still a pretty good eater. You do have a major sweet tooth (like your mom) and you love all fruits except mangoes. You also like bacon a lot.
• You need a lot of love. You can be fragile and even a little needy at times if you don’t think you are getting the attention and love you deserve. You have definitely had a hard time with all the changes—new sibling, new apartment, etc. You want to make sure we haven’t forgotten you.
• You give a lot of love. You sometimes just look at me smile, and throw your arms around me and give me a very strong hug. Sometimes you’ll kiss me 20 times in a row. Whenever I talk about things in the future (ie. “maybe you’ll live in Paris someday” or “Maybe you’ll go to X school someday”) you’ll always look a little scared and then smile and say “With you?? You’ll be with me Mommy!”

Dylan
• You are 27 (5th percentile) pounds and 35.5(what we measured you at) or 36 inches (25th percentile and what the doctors measured you at).
• You can jump. You can swing a bit on the monkey bars. Hopping is a bit of a stretch.

• Brown is your favorite color. For your birthday at school they made you crowns--C's was pink, yours was brown. You almost always pick out boys clothes in stores.
  • You still run with a bit of a gait. You exaggerate your right side a bit. It worries me but you are so active it doesn’t seem to slow you down.
  • You love to dance. You often dance by leaning over, putting your elbows out to your side, and kinda moving your head from side to side.
  • You remember A LOT. Sometimes you try to remember something and you ask for my help but I have no idea what you are talking about. This really pisses you off. I’ll say “I’m not sure I remember.” You’ll start yelling “No, you do……” where do is about ten seconds long. I feel so bad because I know you are thinking of something specific but can’t articulate it to me. The other day I realized you were trying to remember the time I had my blood drawn when I was about 3 months pregnant. I couldn’t believe that was what you were getting at, but you remembered it in detail once I figured out what you were talking about (it is like playing 20 questions). The other day you ‘remembered’ all the ridiculous details of going through security at the airport—when we went last April. (It sometimes feels a bit like the “Chris Farley Show”—“Remember that time when you…”).
  • When you try to blow bubbles it sounds like you are making the ‘letter F” sound. Needless to say you kinda suck at blowing bubbles, but you don’t know that. You’ll say “these bubbles are broken.”
  • You have VERY specific clothing taste. Your favorites are your fish shirt (turquoise swim school shirt I got for free) your airplane shirt, anything brown, your Thomas briefs, and the black butterfly shirt you have had forever. You also like to ‘lay out’ your clothes before you wear them. I have no idea where you learned to do that. God help the person who messes with your clothes when they are laid out.

• You still have ‘accidents’ on a relatively frequent basis. It doesn’t really bother you though. You’re kinda like “I peed. I need new Thomas underwear. Whatever.” Sometimes you have accidents and don’t tell anyone because you don’t want to stop playing.
• Your favorite books: “Big Maisy,” “Little Maisy,” “Thomas”, –you don’t like me to read them but you insist on having them in your bed at night. If I try to put a new book into your bed you’ll often complain, “But I don’t know how to read that book.”

• You still love giraffes. You also love Oski.
• You have some of the funniest body and facial expressions I have ever seen. You put your hands on your hips a lot. You say things and it is like watching myself because you mimic my facial expressions. Sometimes you’ll put your hands on your chin when you are pondering things and I have to stop myself from laughing out loud. As Andrew said tonight, “D, you are one of a kind. They broke the mold when they made you.”
• You are generally very easy going but you have a few things that really set you off, including: you don't like lotion on your cheeks, you want me to zip your crib tent "all the way so it doesn't hurt your fingers," you don't like barbecue sauce, and you don't like other people messing with your animals. You also like to soothe yourself by rubbing your face in your 'blankie.'
• You are incredibly sweet to Lila. You are always worrying about her and you love to give her what she needs, be it a pacifier, toys, a hat, etc. You are like a little fairy who leaves things for her to play with or runs around finding a hat for her.
  

Happy birthday a little late. I love you monkeys.