Our 3 Year Old Princess

Here's a little update on Piper.  I can't believe it really has been a year since I have updated about her.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up!   Well, Piper is still our sweet girl, but with a little bit more sass these days.  She figuring out more about life now that she is 3 and learning to deal with it all, good and bad sometimes.  She is too smart at times and loves to use my words towards Brody.  I guess you can call her my mini me.  For example, just the other day, Brody was complaining about doing something very easy for himself.  I said to him, "Brody, you know how do to that, "  and Piper says, "Yeah Brody, you're old enough!"  I smiled at that one.  I guess I say to him a lot, "You're 5 years old; you're old enough to know how to make your bed now."

Piper is so much more observant of a child than I'm used to. The best one was a few months ago, we had our home teacher, Bro. Duke, over for a visit.  He had been talking about our freedoms and used the word "free" a lot.  She was being exceptionally good, sitting next to us listening, while Brody was off coloring.  She was quiet for a while and then all of a sudden spoke up and so matter of fact said, "I'm going to be "free" in 1 month"  We all died it was so funny.  Of course in her mind, free was 3!  That girl is so funny.   And than other day she overheard me tell John over the phone, "When I get home, I'm going to throw these kids in the bath"  Once I finished talking,  Piper, with a very concerned look, says, "Please don't throw me in the bath mommy"  I had not ever thought of it in such a literal way.  She definitely catches things like that.  Always have to watch what I and others say around her. 

Her vocabulary seems to grow every day too.  She still repeats almost everything she hears and throws it back out there in the form of a question.  You can almost see her brain absorbing it right there.  Great way to learn.  She seems to talk much older than her age.  It's funny to see people try and talk to her, since she is shy and often soft spoken in public.  It throws people of guard when she does talk.  Some of the funny lines she says are "Way to go, _____!","Sure!", "Oh man!" and "I'm sorry mommy, I love you"  That last one kills me.  She will say that after she has done something wrong and she is in trouble.  She will then come over with a smile on her face, hug me and say that.  I usually forgive pretty easily after that line.  Either she is being sincere or the best manipulator ever.  I mean, come on, even with make up all over her face, it is still hard to resist this!

Speaking of makeup, she is obsessed.  She used to sneak and mess up my lipsticks and make up all the time, wanting to be just like mommy.  She loves to stand next to me and look in the mirror using my brushes. Thank goodness for the makeup bag from Grandma Brown because now she loves having her own.  She wants it on all the time.  I gave her all my lip glosses I had, so she has everything from princess ones to MAC brand ones.  Oh man. She had gotten so good at putting on her lip gloss by herself that it almost makes me wonder if she could become a makeup artist someday.  I use this obsession for my advantage since she doesn't like, at the present moment, anything in her hair for more then 5 minutes.  I told her she can't do her lips until the she has a bow or flower in her hair.  It works until we are out the door and then it is a constant battle. 

She loves almost everything else girly, though: dress up shoes, dress ups, jewelry, and purses.  The other day, she insisted I bring my purse to walk Brody up to school just because she wanted to bring hers.  She still loves to pick out my clothes to match her.  Like today, she would only wear a jean skirt to church, like I wanted her to wear, if I wore mine.  She is very picky dresser.  If I want her to wear a particular outfit, I have to think of something clever to steer her in that direction.  She used to try on a ton of outfits every morning just to find the right one and throw the rest of them on her bedroom floor.  Wait, is this girl a teenager already?  Luckily, that has tamed down a bit and she is not as melodramatic about it.

This girl loves to shop!  She has a passion for shoes and all clothes.  With Brody in school during prime shopping hours, Piper and I have been out and about far too much.  It is hard to be in a clothes store with her.  Beside loving to hide in the center of clothing racks (which is what I loved to do when I was a kid), she wants almost every piece of girl clothing she sees.  Pulling her away is hard to do, and she at times will throw a fit like it is the end of the world if I don't get her what she wants.  Most of the time she doesn't succeed and a good distraction is what helps me to leave.

She is still our snuggler. Give her a sippy and an arm to rub and she is in heaven.  She still has this thing about arms.  She loves to hold onto arms and rub them, almost like holding a favorite blankie or stuffed animal.  She has done this from when she was little.  It is a comfort to her mostly and asks us to sit by her on the couch when she is tired and is watching a show.  It is great that she still loves to be close to us because she is still our baby, but hard when you're trying to get things done.

She loves books and being read too.  Her favorites are any Tangled book or other princess books.  Her eyes have been recently opened to the world of the Pinkalicious series and she is now in love.  She has a lot her favorites memorized too.  Here she is enjoying one of her books with Pascal under a warm blanket.

Growing up in the electronic age, her new favorite friend is my iPhone.  She can navigate through that thing better than I can.  She used to just know how to find Netflix and stream her favorite shows, like Dora the Explorer.  Then John put Angry Birds on my phone, along with some other kid friendly apps, and now she is playing games like crazy.  Brody is pretty obsessed with it too and they are constantly fighting over my phone.  Ugh!  We have had to set some ground rules now, but it is still out of control.  Sometimes we find her sneaking the phone and playing it under the table.  Like we can't find her there.  I should really just password protect it. . . . 

She has gotten pretty good with our Kinect too and loves the new Disneyland game.

Here's a funny story.  Over Christmas break, I had got a delivery from a friend with two boxes of See's candy that I ordered.  I put them in the house, set them on the counter, and continued to finish vacuuming out the van.  All the while, Piper was watching a show.  While I was outside, I had a thought to go check on her, just in case.  I come in from the garage and find this on the kitchen counter.

Here's my newly delivered See's turned upside down with a few little nibbles in some.

The only I could do next was take a picture.  It was just before noon, so obviously she was getting hungry.  I love that she, as one friend put it, balanced out her chocolate consumption with a healthy banana.  After cleaning her up, I asked her if she liked them and she said they were yuck.  I think she thought it was a present with the pretty Christmas wrapping and opened that package up right from the bottom.

She is not much of a sweet fan and goes for more salty things.  She shows up right next to you if a bag a chips is opened.  She is a good eater, though, but likes more small meals and little things throughout the day.  She is a healthier and a more adventurous eater than Brody.  She is not as stubborn as he is and will eat almost anything with the right incentive.

Some other things about Piper:

-She learned how to roll her tongue.

- She loves to sing and dance.  She knows a lot of the words to all the Disney songs, but what is most hysterical is her love for the Aquabats.  Her favorite requests are "Turn the Radio Down", "Best Day of my Life", and "Hey Homies".  There is nothing funnier that hearing a little girl say, "Say what!" like a thug while you are driving.  We really have to get that one on video.

- She loves to brush her hair or my hair.  She likes to have me sit on the couch/bed while she brushes my hair.  I did not train her to do this, but man is it wonderful.  She loves hair mostly because she loves Tangled so much.  She wants her hair long like Tangled and asks pretty much every day if her is getting longer.  I tell her it will get nice and long like Tangled if she eats her green vegetables and fruit.  That was the incentive she needed and she has been an even better eater.

- Her sleeping habits are not so great at the moment though.  She wakes up like clockwork around 10 PM crying (almost like night terrors, but she can easily be aroused from sleep).  Then around midnight she wakes up much more awake and alert, but will go back to sleep.  Then, at sometime through the night, she climbs in bed with us and sleeps until morning.  My kids are never great sleepers, but she is my best one.  She tells me when she is tired and wants to go to bed, she sleeps for about a 12 hour period, and usually sleeps in.  Pretty sure it is because she is growing.  Can't wait for her to get back to normal!

-She is still tall and skinny.  Haven't been to the doctor yet to see exactly what her measurements are. She is in a 3T and some 4T now.  Will update soon with with that.

We sure love this little girl though and grateful she is apart of our world!  Trying to remember and enjoy everyday because she is already growing up way too fast!