Eliza is 3!

Our third baby is now 3.  Wow.  Hard to believe.  This weekend I've been looking back at old blog posts of her baby year and reading our journal entries from when she was born and it just seems like such a long time ago, yet the time has passed so quickly!

Eliza has developed so much personality this year, and is reminding me more and more of her older sister.  She is fiercely independent, yet loves to act like a baby and even be treated like a baby at certain times (such as meal times).  She is headstrong and opinionated, but also has a sweet and thoughtful side.  She doesn't like being pushed around by her older brother and sister, and really wants to be able to keep up with them when they're riding bikes and scooters or playing a game.  

Eliza has started hiding things in order to keep them safe from Cat and Jack.  She has hidden things in her clothing box (a large flat bin that slides under her crib) and in the small space between Cat's dresser and the wall.  Usually, when she hides something, nobody plays with it for a long time, including Eliza.

Eliza recently started drawing shapes and even people.  She enjoys playing with Jack's cars and trucks (and has even expressed envy over some of these toys) yet she is very girly - she loves dancing, the color pink, and wearing skirts and dresses that twirl when she spins.

I've noticed a few eating/drinking quirks lately, too.  Eliza loves cucumbers and apples, pealed.  She only eats sandwiches sans crust.  She happily drinks water from a water bottle or from a cup with a straw, otherwise, she hates drinking water.  When there's something she doesn't really want to eat at dinner, she'll usually eat it anyway if we feed it to her.

Eliza started trying to give up her nap earlier this year, and became almost impossible to get to nap a couple of weeks ago.  I tried everything I could think of to get her to keep her nap, which she still needs, but finally admitted defeat.  I decided to begin a quiet time routine with her.  I told her she was now welcome to stay awake, but that she needed to be in her bed and stay quiet.  She was perfect the first two days, staying in her bed, quietly looking at books for an hour the first day and 45 minutes the second day (it was a school holiday and we all wanted to go somewhere.)  Tuesday, both older kids were at school, so my goal was a two-hour quiet time.  She got out of her bed once, then stayed in her bed for the rest of the time, and fell asleep.  And she's fallen asleep every day since.  So, apparently, all I needed to do to get her to nap was to tell her that she didn't have to..?

I love this little gal, in all her spunkiness, and I can't wait to see how she continues to change as she grows and matures in the years to come!