Our (almost!) three year old!

I’ve been tired.  Pretty pooped.  Kayliana (and Matthew) have had a nasty cough-cold situation for four plus weeks now.  Kayli started hacking everynight between 11pm-1am-ish.  Like clockwork.  We finally slept through the night Sunday and Monday.  It was amazing.  When you’re having interrupted sleep, finally slumbering for hours is the most magical thing ever. Then last night/this morning it was Matthew – nasty-coughing at 4:00am.  I was supposed to go for a run at 6 and therefore my alarm was going to go off at 5:30.  Needless-to-say, I didn’t quite make it up (after finally falling back asleep at 5:20). Anyway, I’ve been a little tired, but that’s not going to stop me from enjoying this week and celebrating our sweet little girl who will turn THREE on Friday!

 

I’m extra excited for her birthday this year.  See, November happens to also be Adoption Awareness Month.  On Saturday, we will be meeting up with Kayli’s birth mom, Mia, at the celebration day that the adoption agency hosts every November.  We’ve never been able to attend before.  They have a professional photographer providing free family portraits, face painting (for after the photoshoot, I assume!), live music, treats, etc.  It’ll be such a fun way to celebrate Kayliana and WITH her birth mom!

 

At (almost) three years old, there are things that I want to remember about Kayli at this age:

 

-  Since her first giggles at six weeks old, Kayli STILL gets the hiccups after a serious belly laugh.

- Kayliana is very complimentary.  She told my mom last week, “Grandma, I like your pretty yellow hair.”  She yelled across the street to a woman walking her dogs: “I sure like your tiny little dogs!”

-Kayliana is pretty much 100% potty-trained now.  Woohoo!  She picked out cupcake/cake-themed underwear at the store.

- She is NOT shy.  She likes to talk to people in the line at the grocery store and almost always includes the tidbit: “I’m getting bigger, and I’ll have gum like my Matthew and Zach!”

-Kayli is often the first to say, “I love you” and it melts my heart everytime.

- Kayliana frequently uses expressive adjectives.  For example, she recently said, “These pajamas are so wonderful.”  She also uses the word “thunderous” – we’re still not quite sure exactly what she means by this but it’s usually positive.

- Kayli still can throw seriously impressive (and creative) tantrums.  I find myself having to say things like, “Don’t angrily drool, Kayli!”

- She’s getting more and more into pretend, imaginary play.  Last night at bedtime, she gasped, hopped out of bed and scooped an (invisible) “baby giraffe” that was apparently perched on my foot.  She ever so gently, cradled it against her and put it in a box on her book shelf. She made me check on the baby giraffe one last time before leaving her room.  I assured her it was sound asleep and she didn’t need to get out of bed to see for herself.

- Kayli sings along with EVERY song despite rarely knowing the words. 

- She’s gotten to be a bit of a picky eater and would choose fruit over almost anything else…except maybe lollipops and Snickers.

-Right now, for her birthday Kayli will say she wants a “chocolate one.” (Cake – that’s my girl).  And if you ask her what she wants for Christmas, her current answer is, “Halloween candy.”

- Kayli loves wearing her princess dresses and when she does she calls me “Mommy Tiana Princess” (her – and my – favorite Disney princess).

-Kayliana is a crazy, active girl who we have to tell MANY times a day to stop climbing and jumping on the furniture.  We also, still have MANY near misses due to her active-nature and clumsiness.  Thankfully we haven’t needed to go in for stitches since her two days in a row in August.

- Kayli absolutely adores her big brothers and, despite bugging them often, they, thankfully, still find her more cute than annoying.

-Every week at church, she shows our priest, Father Todd, any new boo-boo’s or bandaids that she’s sporting.  This began the Sunday after her stitches when Father Todd, ironically, had also needed stitches that week.  They have quite the bond apparently.

-Without fail, even when she’s driving me bananas, I can’t believe the gift that Kayliana is to our family.