My First

I look at Livi these days and see less and less of the little baby I love to cradle in my arms and more and more of the independent little lady she is becoming. Livi amazes me on a daily basis. I can't believe how grown up she is these days.

She is so goofy and funny! Always making me laugh with her funny faces, jokes, and quirky sense of humor. Are other kids this funny? I haven no idea but I love it... except when she uses it to put off doing something she doesn't want to do.

Livi has a wild and vivid imagination. I love it. She tells us stories about monsters and tulips and flying and sinking and babies and ladybugs and running and toes and mountains and numbers and anything else a three year old could possibly think up. She goes in to choruses of elaborate tales and reasons for the way things are. She is so rad.

Along with her creative reality that she sometimes lives in she has some incredible mood swings to go with it. I think she has calmed down a little... or we have learned to deal with it and help her through it better. She is still VERY good at telling us exactly how she feels and what she wants from us when she is upset. She is a passionate child in everything that she does. I think her passion will take her far in life and I'm so excited to see where it takes her.

Livi is so helpful to me. I'm starting to realize how it is so easy for parents to rely on their oldest child for help with younger siblings and around the household. I know it is inevitable to a point and the natural way, but with Jon and I both being oldest children who where relied on heavily and had very different expectations put on us from our siblings, we are trying to be very conscientious about not putting that extra pressure on Livi. Livi takes a lot of pride in helping us out, but we don't want her to think she has different rule from her sister or that we expect more from her. She is loving being able to do things on her own though. She can get her own snacks out from the snack cupboard, washes her own apples, sets the table, puts on her socks, shoes and pants all by herself! She smiles and tells us how proud she is of herself. I love watching her confidence grow!

Livi still has naps in the afternoon but is diaper-less for them! Yay! She has only had one accident during a nap since trying to night train a few weeks ago. We do still have her sleep on a soaker pad just in case. We gave up on the night training after about 5 days of fighting her to go pee in the middle of the night. She refused to sit on the toilet after being woken up to pee. It turned in to a battle with lots of tears. We were worried she was going to be traumatized or something and thought the middle of the night fighting was interrupting her sleep way too much... our sleep was suffering too. So, we will wait a few more months until we give it a shot again. Any suggestions?

Livi adores her sister, most of the time. She is so good at including her in play and telling me when she needs me to keep her sister away from her. Frequently, I hear eruptions of giggles from the two of them. I'm not sure they always know what they are laughing about. It is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. These two were born to be sisters.

I'll end with a few quotes that I can remember from the past little while. She is quite observant with an imaginative innocence that only an articulate child can have!

While drying off at the pool, after showers in the change room, Livi looks at and grabs my boobs and says "They're not supposed to be down here. They are supposed to be up here!" Yes dear. I know. Thank you for pointing that out. 

She had an astute realization about my parenting style the other day. "You are a good mommy and a different kind of mommy and a silly mommy." Yup, she is already realizing that I'm a "different kind of mommy". She doesn't stand a chance at being normal!

After helping Daddy find some stuff under the stairs with out any pants or panties on, she comes back to tell me "Look what I found in my butt! A tinsel! And look what else I found in my butt! My finger!" She's gross. Go wash your hands Livi.

I love her.