Valerie at age 3

A Snapshot of Valerie's Favorite Things in January 2016

Valerie is totally obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and would prefer to watch it on an endless loop. She asks lots of questions about it. "Does the Cheshire cat live in the dark hole in the tree? He has pink and purple stripes."
Do you love the Cheshire cat?
Yeah.

"What does the Caterpillar say?"

"What's the lady in the purple dress's name?" (Alice's sister)

"But but but but but but but -  the rabbit says that."

"Allison's cat's name is Diamond." (She sometimes calls Alice Allison)
No, it's Dinah.
No, Diamond!
It's Dinah.
No, DIAMOND!
Okay. Sure.

"Who's the other one at the tea party with the March Hare?"
"The Mad Hatter."
"The Mad Hatter and the March Hare gave Alice a birthday cake!"

"The cards are painting the roses red."

"Why is Alice crying?"

She also loves to say "What nonsense!" or "Ponsense!" or other versions of nonsense.

Another phrase she's picked up is "Stop kidding me, Mom/Daddy!" with a wave of her hand. We are not sure where that came from.

Her newest favorite food is the bell pepper. Preferably orange or yellow but will devour any color and keep asking for more. She also loves apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, freezer waffles, pancakes, bread, pizza, PB&J, and of course, fruit snacks and M&Ms are still the center of her existence. She'd live on carbs if you let her, but also likes chicken nuggets or fish sticks with plenty of ketchup, sausage, shrimp, and salmon.

She still goes to bed like a dream and sleeps like a champion, sometimes until 8:15-8:30 am. She still sleeps with her binky (pacifier) every night and we are dreading taking it away and messing with her amazing sleep habits.

She LOVES books. She loves being read to, and also "reading" books herself. If it's a book she's read before, she'll try and recite it from memory as best she can, and make up words to fill in what she can't recall. She will make up a story for any book she can find, including adult books with no pictures. She knows all her numbers and letters and can spell her own name, but can't sound out words very well yet. She often asks how to spell things.

She loves flowers and plants in general. I told her she can't pick flowers or leaves off of plants, but she can smell and touch them gently. Every day on our walk to school, she stops to pick a weed, or leaf, or some kind of plant to give to me or one of her teachers. She calls dandelions "sunflowers" (even after I told her they are called dandelions. She insisted that no, they are sunflowers) and loves those the most, since she is allowed to pluck them. We are anxiously awaiting spring, when we will see more flowers on our way to school.

She likes dinosaurs and pronounces T Rex "teerix" which never fails to crack me up. Her main concern is what do dinosaurs eat? And she has told me that the dinosaurs are dead. I don't think she quite grasps what that means.

Other things she loves:
her baby doll, which she named Caiya after her friend at school
puppies
cats
Cinderella
ballerinas
anything princess related
anything sparkly or pink, or brightly colored
Halloween
Christmas
her birthday
blowing out candles
the beach
being upside-down
having her nails painted
stickers
presents
sprinkles
cake/cupcakes, though she will only lick the frosting off the top.
trains
block towers
lip gloss
bubbles
balloons
splashing in puddles
the zoo
pretty much everything in life

We asked her if she would rather have a puppy or a baby sister/brother, and she chose a puppy. Sorry kid.

She misses her friends from home and her cousins a whole lot and asks about them all the time. She asks every day if it is summer yet, so she can play with Sophie, Hannah and Harper. She also wants to move to "Indy-apolis" and live with cousin Carter. You can tell she loves Mommy and Daddy though. She's in a pretty big Daddy phase right now - totally crazy about Daddy, since he is the most fun to play with. But she also loves Mommy, and we get to read lots of books and snuggle together. She finally started saying "I love you" without being prompted, which is amazing.

Her first year as a baby seemed like it would never end. I felt like I would be the mother of a baby forEVER. But time seems to be speeding up now and I can hardly believe she is 3 and such a big girl. When people would tell me to enjoy that first year, "the time goes by so fast," I couldn't believe them, it was dragging by so painfully. But now it really is flying and suddenly I believe that she is going to grow up into a teenager and an adult one day. Some days she looks so grown up it makes me want to cry. I'm trying to hold onto the sweet toddler moments while they last.

Although we have our challenges, tantrums, and plenty of frustrating days, she grows more fun and sweet every day. I love getting to know her more and more as her verbal skills improve and am so looking forward to what this year will bring.