Elise Update: 3 Years Old

Our sweet Elise turned 3 on March 21st! It is hard to believe she is 3. It throws me off when I pull out Carter's old clothes for her because I feel like he just grew out of them. I guess I'm in a little bit of denial that Carter's already 5! Elise is still my sweet little girl most of the time. She'll randomly give me kisses and hugs. If she gets in trouble she's typically quick to give me kisses and make up. But since turning 3 she's also hit a sassy patch. I remember 3 being a more difficult age with Carter. I was surprised everyone talks about the terrible 2's because 2 wasn't terrible with Carter but 3 was a challenge. The same has been true for Elise. Her sassy side has definitely started to come out in full force, more on that later!

I joke that Elise has 3 modes of movement: running, galloping, and being carried. She very rarely walks and she's at the age where she has to or we can't stay together. When she wakes up in the morning she runs out of her room, closes the bedroom door, and takes off running down the hall. I just love that she wakes up running! For as much as she likes to be active and run, she also equally loves being carried. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. One day she might walk for the entire 2 mile loop on a hike. Another day she wants to be carried everywhere we go. You just never know. When she was little she always said, "Up pea," for "Up please." She said it for so long that now she says it more as "Uppy," rather than as an attempt to say "Up please." 

We went on a little 2 day, one night trip over spring break. Elise did really well with naps shuffled around during our trip. One day she didn't nap until 3 and the other day it was almost 4 before she napped. It's nice that she's now more flexible with naps and we can push them back without a problem. She's still a bit difficult at bedtime, but not too bad. She tends to get out of bed at least once and sometimes up to 5 times. It doesn't matter too much what we do, it comes down to what she's feeling that day. If she's not super tired she gets up a lot. If she's overtired she gets up a lot. We occasionally hit the perfect balance of tired so she either doesn't get up or only gets up once but it doesn't happen often.

It's so cute that when Elise talks about Carter and our pets she refers to them as My Carty, My Harper, and my kitty. It's all about the possessives. Something else she says that's cute is Chickaletta. That's the name of a pet chicken in Paw Patrol and she calls all chickens Chickaletta. I crack up every time she says it! Every once in a while she says something and I don't catch what she's trying to say right away. One day I thought she was saying sticker and she was talking about Jake, who she calls Jakers. She says Chick fil A, Chick uh lay which I think is precious.

Elise has been super sassy lately. She is more defiant and less interested in following directions. She's in that phase where she really wants to challenge authority and figure out where the boundaries really are. One day I told her, "I love you so much." She said to me, "I don't love you so much." When I told her, "Elise, that makes me sad!" Her response was, "Carter loves you so much. I don't like you." There was nothing I did to provoke her. She wasn't in trouble and I hadn't done anything that upset her. She just felt like being a stinker. She also likes to tell people, "I'll spank your bare butt." I've caught her saying it to Carter a few times and got onto her about it. 

Elise is fully potty trained but she did have a phase where she had multiple potty accidents. I started to worry maybe she had a UTI or something because it was so out of the ordinary but after a few days she was back to normal. She still wears a Pull Up at bedtime and will continue to do so until she wakes up dry. No point in waking her up in the middle of the night until her bladder is big enough to make it through the night. It's so nice to have her in undies and doing so well! She was at a friend's house today while I volunteered, watching students whose parents didn't have childcare during the teacher walk out and she didn't have any accidents. She also hasn't had accidents in her classroom at church in quite a while. She does a great job going to her classroom and will actually tell us to leave when we drop her off. Since she's now 3, she's moving up to the next classroom. I hope she does just as well even with a different teacher. Elise was excited to see her teacher at the Easter Fair since it was a different time than she normally sees her.

At the last minute I realized the perfect present for Elise for her birthday would be a scooter because we went to an event where there were scooters and she spent most of the time riding one around. I suggested it as a present and Thomas got one for her. She loves it and wants to go to the library just so she can ride her scooter. She also rides it all around the house. The interesting thing is that she switches up which leg she pushes with as she gets tired but is better at pushing with her left leg and tends to spend the most time pushing with her left leg. She is very obviously right handed when she goes to draw or write so it's interesting she is better with her left leg in this aspect. Her drawing has really taken off. She was mostly just drawing circles up until recently. Now she'll draw something and when she tells me what it is, it looks just like what she says it is. Yesterday she drew a really awesome spider with eyes and everything! I got so excited when I saw it.

It seems like Carter and Elise have had more instances where they don't get along lately but for the most part they love each other and play well together. Elise has definitely figured out how to milk it when Carter isn't nice to her and will scream and fake cry to get him in trouble. One morning we were doing a race to see who could get dressed fastest. I thought Elise would be disappointed because Carter was fully dressed with shoes and everything before Elise had gotten her jammies all the way off. Instead, she told Carter, "Good job!" Then she went right back to getting herself dressed. She likes to dress herself and wears some very interesting outfits and combinations. There for a while any time she dressed herself she didn't put underwear on. It was a bit embarrassing when we went in for her 3 year well check and the doctor commented that she was going commando. I have to remind her every morning to put underwear on or it gets a little gross. She often doesn't wipe very well after going number 2 and then will get her pants dirty when not wearing undies. At her appointment she weighed in at 29.7 pounds and was 37.5 inches tall. She's growing up so much and getting so big! This next school year she will start school and I just know she will love it, although I will miss my sweet girl! I love you so much, my little Leesey Lou!