3 Years Old

When you’re below the age of 5, heck, when you’re below the age of 21, gaining an extra year on your birthday is a big deal. However, in terms of importance and excitement, I think turning 3 may trump all. It’s the first birthday you truly comprehend. It’s the first time you’ll understand that you’re having a birthday party, and that you get to have a say in what happens on that day. You go from being a toddler to a little kid. You’re no longer considered a baby. You realize your opinion truly does count and there are better ways to get what you want than to fall on the ground crying. At 3, you become a real person. Lol.
At 3, Naomi is more vocal than any 3 year old I’ve ever met. She talks non stop, all day long. She’s incredibly opinionated, incredibly bossy, and yet incredibly sweet, smart, and caring. She still gets frustrated when she doesn’t get what she want, and she still throws tantrums when she can’t explain what’s bothering her. But she’s getting better. She’s much better at telling us what she needs, and even better at telling us what she wants. Each day I see her maturing more and more. As she realizes she’s getting older and more capable, her desire to help and be involved is increasing. She wants to be part of any conversation that is going on around her…be careful about what you say, her little ears pick up everything, and her big mouth tends to repeat them at the most inopportune times. She wants to help around the house, and with her baby sister in every way possible. At least 20 times a day she’s saying, “can I help” or “Can I do it?” Great in most cases, sometimes a little frustrating when I’m trying to get something done fast (like shove baby food in MIkaela’s mouth because she’s screaming at the top of her lungs since she’s the world’s fastest eater and needs non stop, rhythmic spoonfuls of food to reach her mouth every 20 seconds).
She loves cooking, both real and pretend. She loves to help her Ama in the garden (we all know I have a black thumb and don’t go out there).
She loves to sing and dance, nothing new here, except that she is getting really good! She can hear a song at school once, and come home and sing the entire song to us. She loves singing, and basically sings all day. She still loves dancing, and continues to put on regular “dance shows” for us at home. She’s also quite the ham and loves to start each performance with a “Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to the singing, dancing, awesome dancing girl show!!” Then she makes you clap, then she makes you say, “yay go Naomi”. Yea she’s incredibly humble too…not.
She’s still shy. But she’s getting better. She warms up to people a lot faster, and she doesn’t get mean and yell “NO” at strangers anymore when they say “hi”.
She still loves to wear dresses, but just recently, has started wearing shorts, skirts and pants again. Yes it involved some tears and meltdowns, but she’s starting to realize that not every occasion is dress appropriate…(like trying to slide down a hot metal slide).
She’s 99.9% potty trained. The only time she wears a diaper is at night, and even then, she’ll wake up 50% of the time with a dry diaper.
She still loves to draw, and is pretty darn good for her age. She must get this from Austin. She likes to draw her family members, animals and most recently maps. Then she plays navigator on our drive home from daycare, telling me which way to go.
Three truly is a big deal. No day in the life of a 3 year old is boring, no day is the same. Every day she’s growing, learning, maturing, changing. I can’t keep up. The other day, I told my boss I couldn’t believe I was the mom of a 3 year old. He responded, “you look it”. =)