Faye J.

Lately I've noticed that Faye's little body is a lot slimmer than it used to be. Baby chunky thighs are now slender, big-girl legs. Sad and cute at the same time. Our spunky girl turned three last week! She's been tricking people into thinking she's three or four for a long time now though, so I guess her birthday just got her closer to telling the truth.

This wintertime lack of humidity has really put a damper on Faye's curls! We still can get some body going though.

Faye girl has a great big smile that's a little off to one side. We love that!

When she finds something funny, Faye throws back her head and laughs so hard. She is one fun girl.

While parking at Costco, the kids always beg me to park by the "climbing wall." That's why they build these, right?

She's so proud!

Big three-year-old girls must keep up with their brothers.

A couple of months ago, Everett got the hang of riding a two wheeler, so the balance bike was up for grabs. I was surprised at how fast Faye caught on to it! This particular day she rode almost two miles on it!

There goes my girl. And my triple stroller is feeling a little empty with just one baby!

The crew.

Rick's schedule has been quite busy lately. After a weekend on call, the kids literally hadn't seen him in over a week. (Except for taking them to the bathroom in the middle of the night!) Rick randomly stopped by the house to change clothes one day, and when he walked in the door we all froze and stared at him like he was some stranger. And then the girls ran over and jumped on him!

Isla gives the sweetest hugs and kisses. (Faye's feeling a little jealous?)

Faye definitely loves her daddy. I hear about it a thousand times a day when she's upset with me, crying, "I NEED MY DADDY!"

I wouldn't say Faye has a great attention span for sit-down activities and crafts, but she did like playing with shaving cream one day!

Faye is a child who NEVER wears shoes. As soon as we get in the car, they're off. If she wears them to the park or the library or anywhere else, by the time we leave they're no where to be found. Faye has lost one of almost every single pair of shoes she has owned. I suppose I could enforce some shoe rules a little better, but I tend to let me kids decide on things like whether they'll wear shoes and then suffer the consequences. On this particular day, Faye had taken her shoes off at the library, and then we were walking over to the park. We stepped off of the sidewalk onto the grass, and she froze and started screaming her head off. I picked her up, and the bottoms of her feet were covered with a ton of tiny burrs, "pricklies," she calls them. I had to sit her on the sidewalk and pick out each and every one of those slivers while she kept screaming. It was awful! There were a few stuck too deep into her feet to get out, so we went home planning on using tweezers there.

Faye wanted to have a rest in her room as soon as we got home, so I put her in her bed. She must have crawled out and gotten halfway down the stairs before falling asleep! The happy ending to this story would be to say that Faye learned her lesson and always wears shoes now. I can't say that's true!

Faye had a fun birthday. She got to go to a gymnastics class. (Which, I hate to break it to her, but I am going to cancel it immediately. I mis-read the info, and it costs twice as much as I thought!) I let her watch a whole episode of Calliou in Spanish. I think I even let her have treats right when she woke up!

Faye requested caramel popcorn for her birthday treat. I found a recipe for a salted caramel cake, which was really good! We served it with birthday cake batter flavored caramel popcorn.

Faye only wanted to invite the neighbors over for her celebration. (She also really wanted them to bring their dogs and cats. Her big plan was to have them all chase each other around our house.) Right before we ate cake, our friends the Allreds stopped by to bring her a present, so we were glad her party got a little bigger! (It's nice to have a friend whose husband is also always at work; we stick together!!)

Faye liked blowing out her candles and opening a few little presents.

We are proud of Faye for throwing a lot fewer tantrums now that she's three (and a lot fewer breakable objects). We're also proud of her for cutting a few cute little bangs all by herself. (She did a pretty good job, right?) I'm maybe the most proud of her for finally giving up her paci!! A couple of months ago I started telling her that when she was three she'd be too big to use a paci in her bed anymore. I cut the tip of her pacis just a tiny bit. The first night after I cut them, she was a little upset and kept complaining about her paci, "it's squeezing air!" But she slept all right. Faye would often claim she was done with her paci and was going to send them to her cousin Soren, but every night she would cave when she couldn't sleep without it. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we had a yard sale. She said she was going to sell her paci, and put it in with the yard sale toys. That night we couldn't find it, and I told her to lay down while I looked for it. Five minutes later, she was ASLEEP WITH NO PACI IN HER MOUTH. That has never happened in her life! (It helped that she hadn't napped that day, so she was nice and tired.) She hasn't looked back and has done a great job sleeping at night like a big girl! (She also quit napping, which is sort of rocking my quiet afternoons.) 

Everett keeps reminding Faye that he's "heard of the terrible threes," so she's not out of the terribles just yet. While this girl getting mad really can be pretty terrible, we sure love our spirited, fun, strong, beautiful, lovable three-year-old girl.