Penny is Three

Penny turned three a few weeks ago! She is quite the girl. Right around her birthday, she finally learned her colors and has them down pretty well. Orange seems to be her favorite/most requested.

She still loves animals

We took away her pacifier about a month ago and it went better than I expected, but now she won't nap anymore. We took her to build a bear to stuff them inside an animal and we picked out a cute little bunny and she was happy to put them inside. At bedtime that day she of course asked for her paci and I told her she could have the bunny and that they were inside. She did NOT want the bunny. I tried to just set it next to her bed and then on her dresser, but she insisted that it be taken out of her room entirely. Obviously she has some negative feelings toward the stuffed animal.

She has been on a puzzle kick and just loves doing puzzles and is really pretty good at them.

She is growing a decent head of hair, but hates having me do it or brush it so she looks fairly disheveled most of the time.

Penny is still really good at playing on her own. When she gets in the "zone", she can easily play for an hour by herself. When she's not in the "zone", she's often very needy and clingy. This makes her either really easy or pretty challenging, depending on the situation.

She is a little bit of a tease. For example, Todd's been saying "I looovee you Penny" and she says back, "I no love you".

This girl gives a whole new meaning to "stubborn", but we sure love our Penny girl!

Kindergarten

Lyla started Kindergarten this August. She was really excited for the first day of school. Her teacher is Ms. Loosle and her friend/neighbor Elizabeth Hansen is in her class with her. We had a talk the night before first day of school about going to school and I was telling her how she would make lots of new friends and how her gift for making friends and getting to know people could really help some of the other kids.

I also reminded her that she already had a friend (Elizabeth), so she would know somebody in her class. She replied to me, "and Violet!" Violet is Debbie's next door neighbor and Debbie had told us that she would be in the class. I was surprised because I hadn't thought that Lyla had actually met Violet, so I asked her, "Oh, have you met Violet?". To which she said "well, not yet...". I just loved it because it was SO Lyla! She just assumes that everyone is her friend and treats them like they are. She really does have a gift and I hope she never loses that confidence!

Lyla on the first day of school just chatting it up with little Violet while waiting in line.