Happy 3rd Birthday Eliza!

For the past several months I've been meaning to write a post on why I love my two year Eliza. Well, time flew by as it does and my 2 year old turned 3 today. So in honor of her on her birthday, here's just a glimpse of why I love this girl.
She is my little buddy all day long. She enjoys helping me out and doing things with me. She's also content with doing things by herself now. It's nice that I don't have to constantly entertain her. In fact, she enjoys the down time to herself. Because she's so laid back about it, sometimes I wonder if I don't do enough with her. A few months back, I sat down to play with her, she looked at me, and in a very shocked voice said "you play with me?"
She loves to watch movies. She would watch movies all day if I would let her. I do my best to control this. She also loves anything IPOD. If you lay your IPOD down anywhere, she will quickly snatch it up and you won't get it back without a fight.
She is hilarious. This girl is naturally funny and doesn't want to be. She's not a fan of the spotlight on her. So if you laugh at her for something she said or did, she will tell you "it's not funny". She will probably scowl at you too. Unless by chance she did think she was funny and then she will say "I funny." You just never know with this girl.
If you tell her not to do something, she will say "it's ok" or "it's fine" and do it anyway. She's already learned the art of ignoring her parents. However, she will cry instantly if she knows she's in big trouble. She is usually pretty willing to say she's sorry.
She's extremely lovable. She will ask you to sit down and cuddle with her. She often tells us she loves us. It melts my heart.
She is a big mama's girl. She doesn't get to see her dad every night. She's happy when she gets to see him, but she most always picks me to read her a bedtime story if he's home that night.
She loves to read books and sing songs all day long. I love when I hear her singing "I am a Child of God" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
For a 3 year old, she is wonderful at sharing (most of the time). She will give things to her sister if she knows her sister wants it. It's a little different with her friends though. It's harder to share with friends. She doesn't like to see Brooklyn sad so she usually gives in to her. Now this isn't an always thing. She has her times where she doesn't want to share, but that usually means she's tired and needs to rest.
She loves to sleep! She still asks for naps. She doesn't always sleep, but she takes a little rest from her day and we both enjoy that.
She's now potty trained (I say this very lightly because I think it takes years to be completely potty trained). I waited awhile with her because I often wonder if I forced it on Brooklyn. Eliza has never had an interest in the bathroom though. She was content with her diapers. They didn't bother her one bit. So, in a way, I did force the potty training on her. However, once she realized what she needed to do (and that she gets stickers occasionally), she has done really well. She still has her accidents though so again, she's not completely finished.
Overall, she's content with life. Content is the perfect word to describe Eliza. She's happy with the way things are for her. She is sad when she can't go to dance or school or birthday parties like her sister, but she's learning that being big is fun. She has some inevitable changes coming up in the next year (starting school, big girl bed, etc). I hope she's ready.
She's the perfect little 3 year old now because she also uses the word "no" all too often. When she doesn't want to do something, she will yell out "no" and then in a louder voice yell "never!". It's hard not to laugh at her when she does this. Laughing at her bothers her even more. She also has started asking "why?" to everything.

Here are a few of the funny things she has said lately (that I actually remembered to write down).
*This month we have been talking about what we are thankful for as a family every night at dinner. When it's her turn, she always says she's thankful for whatever she can see in front of her. Then she rambles on an on. It's not really coherent words. I understand a few words here and there. If we, by chance, interrupt her or move to the next person, she will say "I not finished yet!" and then keep going.
*She was sick a few weeks ago and she was wheezing and having trouble breathing so I gave her a nebulizer treatment. She was nervous about it at first because she hasn't had a treatment in a long time. She loved it though because it helped her feel better. The next morning, the first thing she did was grab the nebulizer box and said "blow me out".
*Last month we were talking about Jesus. Out of no where she said "I like Jesus. I don't like Santa". Not sure where she got that from.
*On a sad note, Marty was leaving for the church one night and as he was leaving she said "don't go. I miss you too much".
*I don't get a lot of privacy as a mom. So I was in the bathroom doing things moms need to do each month when Eliza came in. She took one look at the tampon and said "that's not a marshmallow". I laughed out loud. Indeed Eliza, that is not a marshmallow. Thank goodness. :)
*When I was called to be the Young Women Camp Director we talked to the girls a little bit about what that means. We explained I would be at girls camp in the summer. Eliza says "that's so nice that you get to go".
*I was walking on the treadmill one morning. When I actually do this, I usually wait until the girls are asleep. When I got done, Eliza came over and said "I want to ride the horse too".

What I wouldn't give to get just a few minutes in a preschoolers head.

Easy Going
Lovable
Intelligent
Zingy
Amazing

Love this girl!