Stuff Jo Knows ...: ( 47 Months) - 3 Years + 11 Months

Her last month as a 3 year old. Then again, when the cashier at GAP yesterday asked her how old she was, Francie replied "almost 4, so, like, 3 and 3/4."

She typically dresses herself in the mornings. She still needs help with some parts of her attire, and some days she feels lazy or wants me to choose her clothes. Some days she likes to dress just like her mama, wearing a dress and boots if I do, or jeans and a sweater, or stretchy pants and running shoes. She definitely likes to accessorize, including one of her plastic necklaces (an amulet like Princess Sofia the First) and plastic clip-on earrings. She asks every weekend if she can "wear lipstick."

Exactly like her daddy, she obsessively picks her fingernails. And then if I pick my nails she tells me not to. I ask her why, and she informs me "you'll pick too far and it will hurt, like me." Behaviorally she was all over the map this month - some evenings are difficult, when she is the most tired, and we haven't seen her all day and just want to hang out as a happy family. The other week we got a report from her teacher that she has been a bit more feisty and territorial at school - one days she got in trouble multiple times for pushing her friends, and then having attitude with the teacher about it.

She is mostly sleeping in her own bed by herself, and continues to earn three marbles on the nights she doesn't bug us. She still gets up in the mornings to each breakfast with her daddy, and even tries to on the days he rides his bike. She is interested in helping more around the house; she's mostly taken on the task of setting the table. We started going to church, and she seems to love it. She most loves sitting in the very front pew, and going up on the stage during the "family" portion of the service.

She is in a Disney craze, mostly related to a music station we now listen to on Pandora. She talks like she knows everything about every Disney princess ever, despite having seen few movies, simply because she's seen the music album cover and is learning their names and songs. We continue to have TV/movies as a part of our regular weekly repertoire, for better or worse, but we have been enjoying watching family movies. For TV she watches Daniel Tiger, Caillou, or Sofia the First. For movies we have watched Happy Feet, Jungle Book, part of Frozen, and Monsters Inc. She listens to the Frozen CD on her player every single day, both in the mornings and during Quiet Time, and speaks of Anna and Elsa as though they were her real friends. We check out music CDs, kid movies, and children's books with audio CDs from the library. She loves to chew gum, and I seem to allow it almost daily. Of note, she is SO responsible and always spits it in the "wrap" and throws it in the garbage, and then tells me she did so. She asked for an ambulance cake for her 4th birthday party, and wants to invite ALL her friends from school. She still seems to have a natural propensity for all things health and medicine, and still wants to be a "baby or a kid or a grown-up doctor" when she is big. I love the way she is interested in learning new words, what they mean, and how to say them correctly. She occasionally has dreams, both good ones and bad ones. The other week she told us that she dreamed that Daddy put her in a jar to protect her from the monsters.

I keep trying to write down some of the sweet, funny, or memorable things that she says ...

"Did I say squirrel right?"

"Ali Baba is Spanish for see you after my poop!"

"Mama, did you know that in china and Africa they cook bagels?"

She blasts get music during Quiet Time (the Frozen soundtrack), I ask her to please turn it down. "No!" She shouts, rudely. "No! I like it loud! I'll just shut the door." Slam.

Me: "What did you do during Quiet Time?"

Her: "When Kiki and Big Baby were sleeping I listened to music and just rested in my bed with my eyes open like this."

Driving home from visiting Daddy for lunch: "Mama when I was doing Quiet Time and you were doing Quiet Time my brain told me that I didn't want surgery."
I laugh and tell her that, fortunately, she's not in need of any surgery.
And she replied, "Only if I don't do any drugs!"

Asking her about her Wednesday with me dad:

Me: "Beebee took two naps?!?"

Her: "Yeah."

Me: "How come you never let me nap?"

Her: "I don't know."

Me: "Is it because you love me too much?"
Her: "Yeah, and cuz I always want you to play with me."

"I did two kind things today - I hanged out with him and I dried things for him."

Alex: "Mila will be a good friend to have in HS. She'll be able to drive for almost a whole school year before you. So she can come pick you up and you guys can go causing for boys and drink beer and ..."
Franice: "And doin' somersaults."

"Can elephants even run?"

"Look, I'm putting in a tampon" she says as she pretends to insert the bath toy dolphin.

"Mommy? What's the password for our house." She meant address.

"I like god. God wishes. He wishes for me and you and daddy and uncle B. Right?

And a heartbreaking and manipulative maneuver that she executed to perfection: "I feel like no one loves me right now."