My Big Three Year Old!

It is very hard to believe that 3 years ago I thought I was coming down with the flu, only to be surprised to find out that my sweet baby girl was stubbornly coming into the world a bit early! Karlie turned 3 years old today and I must say that she has continued to surprise me for 3 years with her incredibly sweet but stubborn personality :) Karlie is a very tiny thing -- built very different from her long-legged big sister and chunky little sister. But don't let her tiny frame fool you -- this girl knows what she wants at all times and nothing will dissuade her!

Karlie is super affectionate and always wanting snuggles. Oh, how I love it! She would read in my arms all day long if Abbi would allow it. It is a good thing she is so tiny because she loves to be carried around by her Daddy every chance she gets! She likes to do stickers more than pretty much anything (other than perhaps hopping or flying around pretending to be an angel.) She loves to eat raisins, home-made tortillas with butter, chicken apple sausage, milk, almonds, granola, cereal, and hotdogs, but please don't try to make her eat anything else because it is a battle you cannot win. (Believe me, I've tried!!! I'm so thankful she likes her raw milk or I would really worry about her eating habits!)

Karlie loves doing schoolwork with her older sister and has picked up on how to sound out words and can actually spell or read the short ones if she decides that she wants to try. If you ask her to come and she begins to run the other way, please don't think she is being disobedient; she is merely giving herself more room to hop to you, as it is her favorite mode of transportation. Karlie has boundless energy coupled with great joy of life and spends much of her day flying around as an angel and singing with Karis. The rest of the day is spent taking care of her many baby dolls and telling me all about them or playing dollhouse. Karlie is very excited about turning 3 but really believes that she can do anything that Karis can do and most of the time she is correct!

Karlie takes great joy in being a big sister and is so proud of everything that Abbi does. She currently tells everyone she sees, "Oh I'm so proud of Abbi for walking!" with a great big sigh of pride. Every time I get Abbi up from a nap, she shouts with joy, "Yay, it's my Abbi-girl!!!" And she wants to give food to Abbi at every meal. But just because she loves Abbi so much does not mean that Abbi can get away with taking her toys! She will yank that toy back not matter how much Abbi screams. But she usually remembers to try to find something else that Abbi can enjoy.

When Karlie got up today, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday breakfast. She said that she wanted cake with balloon icing! That was a surprise, but luckily I had some pancakes frozen and mixed up some quick "cream cheese-butter-maple syrup-vanilla-blueberry icing" so she had purple balloons on her pancakes. She was quite pleased!

We planned to meet Daddy for a birthday lunch so I asked her where she liked to eat out the most. Her response? "The grocery store!" Apparently she loves the random samples. But she finally said that we could go to Mellow Mushroom instead. On the way, we stopped by a bakery and she picked out a chocolate cupcake to eat after her pizza (we are having her cake at her party in two weeks with Abbi's.) Unfortunately, I forgot to take the camera so I don't have pictures of her excitement.

I decided to do a quick interview with Karlie to remember all her favorites when she turned 3. Here are her responses:

Favorite thing to do outside: RUN!

Favorite thing to do in soccer class: run like a bird!

Favorite thing to do in basketball class: Pass to the rhino!

Favorite CD: Music Machine (One that she got for Christmas that I actually listened to growing up! Oh, the memories!)

Favorite Game: Hi Ho Cherry-O

Favorite Dinner: Raisins. So then I made her tell me her favorite meat dish: hotdogs

Favorite Snack: raisins

Favorite thing to play with Karis: dollhouse and people

Favorite thing to play with Abbi: ball

Favorite place to go shopping: grocery store

Favorite breakfast: pancakes

Favorite book: The Color Kittens and The Richard Scary Storybook Dictionary

Favorite exercise: zig-zags

Favorite place to go in car: Virginia!!! (grandparents' house)

Favorite clothes: Anything purple

Favorite Song: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Favorite Schoolwork: Doing our letters (phonics)

Favorite shoes: my pretty red ones

What she says most often: "I'm Gabriel!!!" or "Can I have some granola and raisins?" or "But I like to be cold!" or "Pick-a-me-up!" or "Can I do some stickers?"
Oh, how I love my little big girl!

Many thanks to Miranda Knox for the pictures of Karlie in her pretty purple dress!