Taylor Turns Three!

Hi Again!

I thought it best to start by sharing an update of what we're all up to as of June 2008. Bear with me as I know this initial post is going to be extra long and I promise going forward I won't write such a diary! I think I will do 3 different posts though, one for each child and then one for Art and I. So here goes...

Taylor turned 3 on April 19th and we celebrated by having a small "girls only" tea party per her request! We had 9 of her little friends and cousin over for a Think Pink Tea Party and served tea sandwiches, pink colored chocolate covered strawberries, raspberries, raspberry scones and of course tea. I was surprised how many of the little girls actually sat there and drank tea for a period of time. You could tell they were all having so much fun it was really cute. Nana and Aunt Carrie did face painting and cousin Elizabeth painted nails. The girls were all treated like royalty, although what else is new right? :)

We then followed up the tea party with a family birthday celebration which was really fun too. She had a full day indeed!

Taylor and I did a co-op preschool program for the Spring semester through Long Beach City College and let's just say it was a good learning experience for us all. Without getting into too much detail, we have decided that in the Fall we will switch to a more traditional preschool where she will go 2 days a week and with a lot more structure. Taylor thrives off of structure and routine, always has always will I guess. She's too much like her momma!

We are blown away everyday by our little girl and how smart and sweet she is. She has a gazillion words including complicated as in, "Grandma, Sydney's just complicated." She knows a ton of songs and nursery rhymes by heart and has even started making up her own songs. Just yesterday she was teaching me the words to a song about her puppy dog "puppy dog brings me so much joy everyday. he is the best puppy in the whole wide world." She is truly a sweetheart and gives us her big squishy hugs and kisses everyday. The best though is when she comes up to me or Art out of nowhere and just tells us she loves us.

While I just spent a whole paragraph bragging about my seemingly perfect little girl, she has of course given us her fair share of challenges. Just this morning she threw her weekly fit about not wanting to go to swim lessons (although she of course has a great time once she finally gets there!). For about 30 minutes she screams, cries, yells, whines and any other form of outburst you can think of telling us "(she) does not want to go to swim lessons". She must say that sentence a thousand times over and over. Such a pleasant way to start the day!

While Taylor can be very outgoing and talkative in small groups and situations where she feels comfortable, she clams up and gets quite anxious in a large group and around new people. This anxiety has been heightened in the last few months and it's made things like birthday parties a bit of a struggle. Art and I are just trying to remain patient and help her work through it but it can be frustrating sometimes because I feel like she misses out on great experiences because she is too scared to try them. For example I recently had to pull her out of gymnastics because she flat out refused to participate and after 2 sessions of her throwing a fit, I decided the stress just wasn't worth it for me or her.

So overall though we can't complain too much about life with our 3 year old princess. She continues to love to read, playing with her friends like Skylar and cousins, and is obsessed with arts and crafts and is enjoying lots of outside time in her pool and at the beach now that summer is here. She has had a few sleepovers at Grandma and Papa's house, which she loves. And we just started a mommy and me yoga class taught by Wendy and she really loved the first class. It should be a good summer!

Thanks for reading!