My first baby is three

We celebrated Lily's third birthday over the weekend and it was really special. She's such a lovely girl, so I wanted to take this chance to record some of the funny/cute/random things she says and does at the moment.

1. Mispronunciations and word mixups
"Pumb" (thumb), "Puke" (Te Puke), "Paint face" (face paint), "Polish nail" (nail polish), "I not can do that," "hiPad" (iPad).

Unicorn face painted on by Daddy.

2. Common sayings
"Is that a great idea?" "Actually." "I'm a good helper." "I'm a good mother" (said when she thinks she's doing something mothers do, like gardening/ cleaning/ cooking/ caring for Sophie.) "That's OK" (either when Sophie has done something annoying and Lily's reassuring me she's not upset by it, or when I've told Lily she can't do something and she wants to convince me it's really OK and I should let her do it.) "I can help you."

3. Interests

• Dressing up - right now Lily is into everything princess/ballerina/fairy. She's forever dressing up and dancing around our living room.

Wearing the dress she chose on her Daddy/Daughter birthday
dress shopping trip (an annual tradition)

• Decorating - cakes, cookies, dolls furniture, the coffee table, her chest of drawers - anything is fair game to be embellished with beautiful stones, shells, fabrics and jewellery. 
• Scooting - we gave Lily a scooter for her birthday because she was always requesting to borrow one of the scooters from her play group. She loves riding her new scooter to local activities like Playcentre and church, and often tells us she's "fast like Sebby", her very fast-scooting friend.
• Gardening - Lily's very excited about the garden we're still trying to build for her. She also likes picking parsley seeds from our plants and sprinkling them in other parts of the garden. And she loves picking flowers, so much so she would venture into neighbours' yards to pick theirs if I would let her.

Lily measuring her garden.

• Drawing - on paper, her blackboard, herself, her dolls (with chalk), special drawing programs on the hiPad. You name it, Lily will find a way to draw on it.
• Puzzles - Lily often requests to do big puzzles at Playcentre, so we bought her one for her birthday. She was also given another one as a birthday present from a friend, so we try to work on them together when Sophie is sleeping (otherwise Sophie pulls them to pieces as we work.)
• Jumping - off high things onto soft things. Yesterday she was jumping off her bed onto a mattress. Today she was jumping off steps onto bean bags. Tomorrow she will jump...

4. Momentous achievements

• First Playcentre drop-off - Lily had her first ever drop-off at Playcentre a couple of weeks back. I took her there but wasn't able to stay because Sophie had a vomiting bug. Lily had a blast without us, and keeps requesting more drop offs.
• No more bottles - Because Lily is now a "big three-year-old" we have stopped giving her a bottle. She used to have one first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but no more. Her birthday gave us a good excuse to stop, and that has lead to her next momentous achievement...
• No more nappies - Lily has been dry during the day for a long time now, but we were still putting her in a night-time nappy because drinking a bottle last thing meant she always needed one. Now that we've cut the night-time bottle, she's able to stay dry till morning.
• Vacuuming - Today Lily operated the vacuum cleaner for the first time to vacuum up some popcorn Sophie had spilt. Proving once again that she is my great helper.

I love you baby girl.