So our big girl is now 3!
It feels like this half term has been full of birthdays (so many in August and September) and that we have been promising Leila forever that she will soon be three, so thankfully the day has finally come!
We had a party for her at the weekend, but on her birthday itself we just celebrated at home. Granny arrived on Tuesday night and Leila was very excited that this was going to happen. To help her get her head around the fact that her birthday party was on a different day to her actual birthday we told her that she had a 'birthday party day' and a 'mummy daddy, edward, granny birthday'.
We let her open a few presents in the morning when we all got up, but then we had to get a wriggle on to get ourselves ready for school. I had worried that maybe Leila would fuss about going to school (it being her birthday and with Granny having just arrived), but she was very good and actually the novelty of having Granny and mummy (and Edward) drop her off really helped.
When we came to collect her after school she ran straight passed me to Granny! At least she was happy and had had a good day (apparently she had painted a picture of me in orange though). When we got home (finally!) we played for a bit but then put Leila to work making icing for the birthday cupcakes we had made. She chose to make yellow icing of course.
Daddy then came home from work and we opened the rest of her presents (trying to find the balance between getting her to look and play with each one and getting them all open before tea time). Tea was roast chicken (slow-cooker) with roasties. Yum! At least the kids thought so. We then got Leila back in her seat (which she swapped with Dad so that she could sit between Daddy and Granny) to sing Happy Birthday and have some cake. The re-lighting candles did their job and we had a lot of fun!
So what did she get? Well her favourite present it seems is the tube of toothpaste we got her (Little Teeth for 3-5yo) because it has a number three on it and it has the same colours and mum and dad! We got her some puzzles and books and clothes. From Nanny and Granddad she got some very cool pirate duplo. From Grandpa she got some clothes and a halloween costume. From Granny and Gramps she got a baby dolly ('hat baby') and ukulele (yellow of course....but she said it was orange when she first opened it).
And at three years old what is she doing?
Well Leila is really physical now and likes to treat the swing (and us) as climbing frames. She can run, jump and climb as well as swing on a big swing.
She loves music and enjoys playing instruments and signing songs. She likes to change words to songs she knows or to make up totally new lyrics to the tune she knows.
Her language and communication is really strong - we can have actual conversations and she offers reasons and explanations (some are hard to argue with!!).
She had a great imagination - as well as making up songs, she knows some books from memory and even makes up new stories for existing books. Her favourite thing to do is to give characters new names in books (which cane make it hard to remember as a lot of the names are made up!)
She is comfortable sleeping in her cot bed with the side off and on most nights will not get up after being put to bed (out story, sitting-up then lie-down story, three songs and lights out). Most nights though she will call out in her sleep (sleep talking or a bad dream), most of the time I go through to see her and tuck her in again (her covers are always being kicked off), but most of these times she not actually awake. Sometimes she does wake in the night and will call out for me or will come through to our room. We then put her back to bed (unless it is after 6am in which case she can come in with us until E wakes)
She can eat well but is a bit of a fussy eater. At the moment she doesn't really like meat in tomato sauce - apart from the times that she loves it....I'm generally able to make a packed-lunch for her that she will eat, and they have a little more variety than poor Daddy and his cheese and pickle sarnies every day!
Leila genuinely loves her brother and she does really sweet things for him like pick up toys, give him toys and hugs and even play together and laugh together. This isn't the whole time though....she can equally be the one taking the toys away and pushing him down. Oh and they are both 'biters'.
Oh and it was also Back to the Future day today too!
It feels like this half term has been full of birthdays (so many in August and September) and that we have been promising Leila forever that she will soon be three, so thankfully the day has finally come!
We had a party for her at the weekend, but on her birthday itself we just celebrated at home. Granny arrived on Tuesday night and Leila was very excited that this was going to happen. To help her get her head around the fact that her birthday party was on a different day to her actual birthday we told her that she had a 'birthday party day' and a 'mummy daddy, edward, granny birthday'.
We let her open a few presents in the morning when we all got up, but then we had to get a wriggle on to get ourselves ready for school. I had worried that maybe Leila would fuss about going to school (it being her birthday and with Granny having just arrived), but she was very good and actually the novelty of having Granny and mummy (and Edward) drop her off really helped.
When we came to collect her after school she ran straight passed me to Granny! At least she was happy and had had a good day (apparently she had painted a picture of me in orange though). When we got home (finally!) we played for a bit but then put Leila to work making icing for the birthday cupcakes we had made. She chose to make yellow icing of course.
Daddy then came home from work and we opened the rest of her presents (trying to find the balance between getting her to look and play with each one and getting them all open before tea time). Tea was roast chicken (slow-cooker) with roasties. Yum! At least the kids thought so. We then got Leila back in her seat (which she swapped with Dad so that she could sit between Daddy and Granny) to sing Happy Birthday and have some cake. The re-lighting candles did their job and we had a lot of fun!
So what did she get? Well her favourite present it seems is the tube of toothpaste we got her (Little Teeth for 3-5yo) because it has a number three on it and it has the same colours and mum and dad! We got her some puzzles and books and clothes. From Nanny and Granddad she got some very cool pirate duplo. From Grandpa she got some clothes and a halloween costume. From Granny and Gramps she got a baby dolly ('hat baby') and ukulele (yellow of course....but she said it was orange when she first opened it).
And at three years old what is she doing?
Well Leila is really physical now and likes to treat the swing (and us) as climbing frames. She can run, jump and climb as well as swing on a big swing.
She loves music and enjoys playing instruments and signing songs. She likes to change words to songs she knows or to make up totally new lyrics to the tune she knows.
Her language and communication is really strong - we can have actual conversations and she offers reasons and explanations (some are hard to argue with!!).
She had a great imagination - as well as making up songs, she knows some books from memory and even makes up new stories for existing books. Her favourite thing to do is to give characters new names in books (which cane make it hard to remember as a lot of the names are made up!)
She is comfortable sleeping in her cot bed with the side off and on most nights will not get up after being put to bed (out story, sitting-up then lie-down story, three songs and lights out). Most nights though she will call out in her sleep (sleep talking or a bad dream), most of the time I go through to see her and tuck her in again (her covers are always being kicked off), but most of these times she not actually awake. Sometimes she does wake in the night and will call out for me or will come through to our room. We then put her back to bed (unless it is after 6am in which case she can come in with us until E wakes)
She can eat well but is a bit of a fussy eater. At the moment she doesn't really like meat in tomato sauce - apart from the times that she loves it....I'm generally able to make a packed-lunch for her that she will eat, and they have a little more variety than poor Daddy and his cheese and pickle sarnies every day!
Leila genuinely loves her brother and she does really sweet things for him like pick up toys, give him toys and hugs and even play together and laugh together. This isn't the whole time though....she can equally be the one taking the toys away and pushing him down. Oh and they are both 'biters'.
Oh and it was also Back to the Future day today too!
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