life with three little pretties: Grey's Quarterly Update...3 1/2!!

I cannot believe we are half way through the 3s!!! You are just the absolute most fun little girl. You are beautiful, inside and out. God has blessed you with the sweetest little heart, and I love that you are full of empathy for others.

Stats: 2T clothes, size 7 shoes
Schedule: You go to bed between 7 and 8. If you haven't had a nap, it's definitely closer to 7. If you have napped, closer to 8. If you have napped, you won't actually fall asleep for some time...sometimes 9:30/10! You are usually up around 7:30. Since we've started back at work and school, you will occasionally rise at 6:30...YIKES!
Eating: Nothing new here. You love you some carbs and fruit. You could eat cereal, pankcakes/waffles/french toast for EVERY meal. You have ate some peas, once by request. But only 6 of them. I still count that as a win.
Potty Training: I feel very confident saying, YOU ARE POTTY TRAINED! I think since your last update, you have maybe had 1 poop accident. A few tee-tees, but usually because we are tickling you. Oops. Not cleaning up your poopy diapers has made me the happiest mommy in the world! You wear a pull up at night still, and if you're home, one during rest/nap. You don't wear one at nap at school and do just fine.
Personality/Friends/Relationships:

You have made lots of new friends in your class this year and are always telling me "so-and-so wants to come to my house". Ha! You love playing with Prestyn at school, and other favorite friends include Laine, Silas, A-bella, and really anyone you're around that is a girl.
Your sisters...you still adore them. You take care of them, feed them, play with them, share with them...and then you also torment them, take their toys from them...
Mom and Dad- You love your daddy so much. He is the best at playing and the best at letting you get by with things! :) You love me too, but there is just something about your daddy. (I get it though, I love him even more than you!)
You are in the troughs of three. It's a tough age and I often wonder if you don't have a personality disorder. Just kidding. You change your mind a lot (like 20 times in 30 seconds) and your moods are up and down and can flip around in an instant. It makes parenting and disciplining tough, but there are so many amazing things about this age too! I love all that you are learning, all that you are communicating, your imagination, your sweet heart...

Discipline: We have been rocking some time-outs. We really had to get tough on these the last few months. We're cracking down on you not listening and trying to be super consistent. Our goal is for you to not see how far you can push it, but to just know what is and is not acceptable behavior. It has helped to get rid of warnings and really follow through with our "threats". You respond best to loss of privilege (usually your quiet time or books in your bed) and time out.
Play:

Dress-up- You change into a twirly dress pretty much first thing every morning and usually have no less than 3 outfit changes a day.
Singing/dancing- Life with you is like living in a musical! You sing all day, to songs you know and love, and then you make up your own. It is so cute and entertaining! Your favorite songs right now are, God is on the Move, and Try Everything.
Imaginary Play- Your imagination is blooming! Everything talks and and interacts... I love listening to you personify everything. Your fave thing to reenact right now is PJ Masks. You're Owlett, of course! You also love to pretend your the teacher (at school or dance) and will teach us dance moves or read us books.
Bags- You love to pack a bag or a purse and carry it around. What is in there varies, but you love this.

Speak:

Some of your notable phrases or funny comments the past 3 months have been:

Should I?... (This is in place of Can or Will, it's always should). Should I hold your hand? Should I wear a twirly dress? Should I drink milk?
Why cuz why? (And you ask why about EVERYTHING. Usually I fire back with why and you can answer it yourself!:))
The sun is waking up Grey! It needs to get it's panties on! (Because that's the first thing you do every morning.)
Be a good listener to your friends (said as I was leaving for Bible Study)
It's loading down! (While playing with a pretend phone and trying to get it to play music!)
You call puddles "muddles"
Holy Moses! (You will say this randomly and it cracks me up!) "Holy Moses, where are all those motorcycles going so fast!?"

Development and Learning:

You said your first prayer all by yourself on 7/29. You asked for ChaCha to feel better and thanked God for Mommy, Daddy, Scarlett, and Hazel. Mommy and Daddy both cried.
You understand consequences (good and bad) and what kind of behaviors get one or the other. You are good about apologizing unprompted.
You do really well with reasoning. If you are upset, we can usually explain things and you will understand and calm down, or negotiate with us. (You're really good at the latter.)

Parent Struggles:

Helping you learn to be a good listener
Redirecting things you learn at school. You will say things like "tooty butt", which we are not okay with, and you enacted "you're not my friend" with some of your princess figurines. We talked about who said this, and you said a girl at school told another girl that. Ugh, this mean girl stuff starts early. We talked about how that felt for the little girl and the princess. You understand it makes them sad. I told you that you never say that to anyone.

Prayers:

We pray for parenting wisdom in all things, but at this period in your life, we specifically pray for you to find good friends, for us to point you to Jesus, for us to be consistent and firm, but full of love.

At Gigi's, trying on the beginnings of your flower girl dress.