New Foods

There are some new kids at the daycare. They are Arabic and the older one doesn't speak much English yet and the younger one is a baby. They also do not eat pork products so dinnertime has had to be revamped a little bit.

One day Ms A got an Arabic meal from the grocery store up the street and another day she made lamb stew.

The Arabic kids wouldn't eat it.

Stephanie and Philip ate every bite.

Anybody got a recipe for lamb stew?

A Doctor's Visit

Stephanie was complaining that her ear hurt Tuesday morning and Hayden had been coughing for a week so I took them to the dr that afternoon.

We got into the exam room and the nurse took the information of their various ailments and was just leaving when Steffi piped up, "No shots today!"

The nurse assured her there would be no shots today.

The doctor came in and talked to her for a second. "No shots today!"

No - no shots today.

He had her get up on the table and listened to her chest. "No shots today!"

He put the stethoscope on her back. "No shots today!"

He looked in her ears. "No shots today!"

He let her get down so he could examine Hayden. "No shots today!!"

He got ready to leave the room to get a prescription for Hayden. "I wanna sticker!"

New Name for Blog

Yes, I have changed the name of Stephanie's blog again. While "It's All About Me!" definitely describes her outlook on life. "Not Yet a Diva" describes her personality.

Honestly, I didn't know how easy-going the older two were until Stephanie came along. Don't get me wrong, she was a happy, easy-going baby. Then she learned to talk. And when she wants something, she wants it. She doesn't distract easily once she sets her mind to something.

If she wants a cookie in the morning, she doesn't ask, she just grabs it. Unfortunately, she's not very sneaky and I caught her and took it away. Then she started crying and screaming. And she tells me, "You make me sad." (I swear it was all I could do to not eat that cookie in front of her.)

If she wants Philip to play with her, then he WILL play with her even if she has to sit on top of him. That time it was Daddy who made her sad. "Daddy yell at me."

If you're in the middle of doing something important and she wants to sit with you and you'd rather she not at that particular moment. Just move over because she's climbing up anyway.

Don't try to have a conversation without her. She insists on talking over any and everyone. (We're working on stopping that particular trait but it's rough going.)

And, my personal unfavorite simply because mornings are not my time of day and they're already hectic enough. ...I could just throw some clothes at Hayden and Meredith and tell them to get dressed and they're fine with it. Hayden doesn't really care about what he wears (except for that one pair of shorts which I finally got rid of - "I can't wear green shorts to school!") and Meredith likes all of her clothes. But Stephanie... It doesn't matter what I pick out for her, she doesn't want to wear that! I always pick out the wrong shirt and the wrong pants, usually I even get the underwear wrong. But I have to pick out something because she wants me to get her clothes out for her. But they're never good enough for her. So then I have to advise her to put those clothes away and get whatever she wants to wear.

And you know it's just going to get worse...

But if she starts demanding M&Ms with all the green ones picked out, I'm sending her to boarding school!

Flamingos

I love this dress Stephanie is wearing! I actually bought it when Meredith was 2. It's a size 5 but it was on sale at a children's resale shop for $4.98. I remember because it hung in the closet for a few years with the price tag still on it.

And it has pink flamingos on it! I love flamingos, flamingoes, flamingi? Whatever. (Steffi's swimsuit also has a pink flamingo on it.) It's a small size 5 so Meredith has already grown out of it. I'm thinking about having Stephanie's 3-year-old picture taken in it but she's not really much of a dress person so I'm having trouble deciding. I want her to look pretty but natural and it's hard to look natural when you're doing a whole body pose and you have to keep your legs at just the right angle so people don't notice you're wearing Dora underwear. I'm kind of dreading taking her to the photographer though. Look at her face! Why does she always have to scrunch up her eyes when she takes a picture! I love her pretty little eyes but you can't even see them here.

Tisha, I hope you like pink flamingos also. This dress will be coming Rue's way before long! Just remember - it's not really a size 5.

She, Her, He, Him

Stephanie talks very well. You can understand almost all of what she says. I took her to the doctor last week and after the listening to the heart and looking at the ears and all that, the doctor remarked, "Well, I don't have to ask if she's talking proficiently yet?" (Because the child never shuts up. Really - there isn't even enough duct tape in the world to silence her for more than 1.32 seconds at a time. Even if you yell, scream, beg, or plead. Even if you bribe her with a cookie.)

Anyway, she does still get her pronouns mixed up. I know, she'll get them in time and I'm not worried about it anyway. For now, it's just so cute...

"My baby is sleeping in she's bed."
"Him are silly." - talking about Daddy

My Birthday!

I had my birthday. Now I'm 3!

I spent the first part of the evening eating frosting while topless. (This should be a part of everybody's birthday, no matter how old you are.)
I wanted a ladybug cake again. Because I had one last year so Mommy made some ladybug cupcakes.
And she also made a rainbow cake. It was a poke cake - isn't that a funny name? It had Jell-O stripes inside.
See, the sign says "Happy Birthday to Stephanie". And we had balloons!
This is me in my birthday crown. It lit up and was so pretty. Mommy broke one of the sides but she fixed it.
I got a dolly. Mommy didn't even know I like dollies but I do.
This is at Grandma's house. I had my birthday there too. Camden was my personal stylist. He's helping me to put on my earrings.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

This is my baby girl. (I don't know who that other girl is but she must have been fascinating.) She needs her bangs cut again. This picture was taken last night but I swear she looked different this morning. All grown up. She's 3 now, you know. We've been practicing holding up 3 fingers to show our age. She was quite upset to learn that she had to go to daycare on her birthday. She wants a ladybug cake again this year. I kept telling her that Mommy would make her a new cake - a 3-year-old cake - but, apparently, the lady bug cake from last year was a hit. I don't know if she really remembers it or she just saw a picture of it. Hayden asked her what she wanted for her birthday - she said, "blue." Yeah, that's helpful.

3 is a milestone birthday to me. That is when they stop being toddlers and graduate to being big kids. Maybe I only think that because that's when the older 2 were housebroken? But Stephanie has been housebroke for over half a year already. She's smart, she is. And she's clever too. Good traits to have but when they're displayed in a 2-year-old, it makes for some anxious moments for Mom. She's also head-strong, opinionated, adventurous, fearless, and determined. The others were fairly easy to distract at this age, but not Stephanie. She remembers. You might be able to distract her for a minute, like, say if you bribe her with M&Ms, but then she'll want to go right back to what she was doing. But she can't keep track of her sippy cup - she's always losing that thing - obviously, not high on her list of priorities.