Shelby is THREE!

Man, I can't believe my little baby is THREE years old! Time goes by so fast.  I love this little girl so much and I can't remember what life was like without her.  My emotions are always running wild around Shelby...sometimes I feel like I'm constantly yelling at her (since she is always testing her boundaries) but then she goes to Grandma's for a couple of hours and my life feels empty.  She is so funny and I'm always anxious to see what comes out of her mouth next.   She is a such a sweet little girl but is such a little firecracker at the same time.  She is still struggling with her speech issues but has come A LONG way in the last 3 months and I can understand about 90% of what she says while someone else may not be able to understand hardly anything.  She is very sensitive and I think it may be due to her having a hard time to communicate.  She is such a MOMMY's girl, which I love and hate at the same time.

STATS:

Height =36.75 inches  (25-50%)
Weight = 31.4 lbs (25-50%)

She was such a big girl, stepped on the real scale, had her blood pressure taken and even peed in a cup! Well, actually mainly on my hand, but some got in the cup. The doctor was pleased with her health overall.  Other than being behind in talking, she is an extremely healthy 3 year old. 

CLOTHING: She is mainly in 3T's now.  She has always been true to size for her age in clothes.  She is still on the small side!  She hates wearing jeans (have no idea why) and is going through a "naked" stage.  Whenever she gets the chance, she takes her clothes off.   We try to limit it to her shirt, but she sometimes will strip down to her underwear (and more if you'd let her).  She says she is "hot", no matter what the temperature...I've been informed this is a stage and many kids her age go through it so I'm not real worried yet. 

SCHEDULE: This hasn't changed much since last time I updated.  She gets up between 6:15-7:00am and goes to bed between 8:00-9:00pm.  She has been sleeping in her big girl bed for 9 months now and other than waking up 3-4 times in the middle of the night to come in our room, she does great.  Most of the time, once I take her back to her room, she will go right back to sleep.  Some nights are challenging to get her to go to bed, she wants to stay up and will stall and make every excuse in the book to stay up longer, but I think that is pretty normal at her age. 

POTTY TRAINING: Shelby is almost fully potty trained.  With the exception of naps and nighttime, she is in underwear all of the time.  She had been "#1 potty trained" for some time now, and we really struggled with the #2.  I definitely learned that it will happen when the child is ready and not a day sooner.  We did everything we could, watched for signs, bribery, etc.  and she would go pee and then put a pull up on her and 2 min later go poop in it.  She just wasn't interested.  Grandma Linda got her a tea set and she knew that would be her prize once she pooped on the potty and she would continue to NOT go.....you could even ask her, Shelby, what will you get if you poop on the potty, and she would reply "tea set" and then crap her pants.  But, one day, she did it and asked for her tea set and has not had a poop accident since (going on about 3 months now).  We will be tackling night time and naps soon.  As much as I like her being potty trained and not having the expense of diapers, it can be a pain sometime....she wants to go potty whenever we go somewhere new and if we are out to dinner, she needs to go at least 3 times and will only actually go ONCE.  Very frustrating, she definitely knows how to play us.

EATING: Shelby continues to be a good eater for the most part.  "Me no like that" is in her vocabulary now and she will often say it before she tries something or even if it is a food she has eaten in the past...I ignore her and then eat it myself because she will usually then try it and then say "I like that"....her favorites continue to be bananas, strawberries, grapes, chocolate, yogurt, green beans, avocado, and most of all CAKE!!

FAVORITES:
She still loves Mickey Mouse and all to do with Disney....I think going there 3 times before 3 contributes to this a little.  But also likes Little Einsteins, Caillou, and her new one is Tom & Jerry!  She did love Max & Ruby, but they got banned from the house when she told us she wasn't listening to us because Max doesn't listen. 

She has a wonderful imagination and her favorite toys are her babies, her food stuff, and books...we are starting to get into board games, but she doesn't like to lose and plays by her own rules!

Shelby is such a smart little girl and is truly the light of my life.  She adores her little sister "AMMY" and loves taking care of her.  I am looking forward to her speech improving this year!! I am sure there will be many funny anecdotes to record in her blog!!

Happy Birthday little girl!! Mommy loves you more than Anything!