Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweet Baby Girl!!!

Our baby is 3!! Can you believe it??? So crazy!! Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! Now we are getting ready to register her for preschool!! What?!? We are NOT ready!! Ahhh!!! Our life was certainly changed for the better 3 years ago. Abigail is such a joy to be around and we just can't imagine our life without her.

Seriously just want to eat her up!!

At 3 years old, Abigail weighs 30.5lbs (50th percentile) and is 37.5 inches tall (60th percentile). Abigail has certainly come a long way from being in the less than 5th percentile for height and weight when she was born, to now. What a change! She is primarily in 2T clothes (starting to wear some 3T) and is a size 6.5 shoe. Her voice...it is just the cutest! We want to bottle it up and keep it this way forever! Some of our friends say she sounds like a little chipmunk. Either way, don't change it, baby girl!! And her hair....boy has it grown this year!! Still holding off on a haircut:-)

Biggest milestones this year: potty trained, getting rid of the binkers, sleeping in a big girl bed and riding a tricycle (her big girl bike)!! I was dreading potty training her. I don't know why!! It wasn't a piece of cake, but it wasn't too bad. Then getting rid of her binkers....oh my. We thought it was going to be awful!! Abigail loved that thing!!! But...it was a cinch! Learning to ride her big girl bike...no stress at all. We knew she would do it some time. We had actually just finished making the comment of how nice it would be for her to be able to ride her bike before her brother was born for when we go on walks and then just like that!!! It happened!! And then we have sleeping in a big girl bed....we were not worried in the least. We thought it would be the easiest of milestones for the year. Maybe that's where we went wrong!! It all started off so well and then....wah wah!! More on that later!! 

Abigail has one of the most fun, happiest dispositions of anyone we have ever met. Her smile, laugh and all around love of life is just incredible. She keeps us laughing every day at the funny things she does or says. There is not a day that goes by that we are not rolling on the floor laughing at what just came out of her mouth. She certainly keeps us on our toes!!

Abigail's favorite toys right now are her duckies. She has 7 and has given most of them "names." Her favorite, whom she has named Abigail:-), goes almost everywhere with us. Abigail's "names" are hilarious. The only toy that has a "real" name that she made up is Moses the ducky. The rest are either Mommy, Daddy or the name of the item (ie just plain ducky or baby doll). Side note....Mommy ducky is holding a cupcake and Abigail said she named her Mommy because Mommy is sweet and likes to eat cupcakes too! Awwww.....just love her!! Daddy, of course, is the very cool (and handsome!!) boy ducky who we recently found out is a murse! Who knew?!?  Every night, she asks Colin to watch over her duckies while she sleeps. Abigail instructs Daddy to keep them in his pockets until she wakes up and they are one of the first things she asks for when she wakes up (from Daddy: they are actually on my lap now as I read this post)! We told Abigail for her birthday we would take her to Toys R Us so that she could pick out one toy....Out of ALL of the toys in the entire store, she picked out a $1 snowman ducky!! Made Daddy so proud!!

Abigail is still a wild child and loves anything that involves flying high up in the air, jumping, being thrown up in the air or in circles...you name it. As soon as Daddy walks in the door, she is asking him to "pick up dance" or jump on the bed.....One of her new favorite things to do is jump on the trampoline at the indoor playground we go to almost every Thursday. Our little dare devil!!

Sleep...we are so excited to say that we sleep has returned to normal!! Ahhh!!! It seemed to take forever, although it was less than 2 months, but when you're in it.....We got some excellent advice from a family friend that gave us a plan that we felt would work with our Abadabs. Here is the gist of the plan...I finally moved out of her bed (phew!) and went and sat in the chair in her room. The rule was I would stay in the chair until she fell asleep as long as she was quiet and laying down. If she wasn't quiet and laying down, then I would get up and leave the room, and we made sure that she knew it was her choice. That part was big. It gave her control over the situation, which seemed to make a huge difference. I had to leave the room maybe 10 times throughout this process so she definitely picked up the "rules" quickly. We slowly moved the chair closer and closer to the door and then we moved the chair out in the hallway and then to our room. Now we can go back downstairs like before. We also got her an "Ok To Wake" toddler clock which Abigail LOVES!! She is able to get out of bed once the clock turns green. The clock has been a HUGE help for us!! The whole process with the new plan took about 3 weeks. Abigail is now sleeping SOOO much better and is totally back to her happy, energetic self!! We could not be happier!!

Abigail LOVES music! She sings and dances constantly! One of her favorite things to do is to run around the house while singing. Abigail likes some "normal" kids songs like Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, any and all of Daniel Tiger songs...and then there are the songs that crack us up....Roar by Katy Perry, Shake It Off (which Abigail swears is Shake it Up...and don't even think of correcting her! Oh how I've tried!! haha) by Taylor Swift, Night Changes by One Direction and Wild Child by Kenny Chesney to name a few. She can even identify tons of different artists on the radio even if she doesn't know the song. Way better than we can!!

Abigail is also a big fan of the Food Network! Every weekend, we cuddle in bed and turn it on. One of my all time favorites:-) Abigail's absolute favorite is Bobby Flay. Well...outside grilling Bobby Flay...not inside Brunch with Bobby Flay! She likes his pool! Some of her other favorites are Pioneer Woman, Barefoot Contessa and Trisha Yearwood. So glad Abigail has taken an interest in cooking! Every parent needs a sous chef!!

The only other TV show that Abigail really watches is Daniel Tiger. We discovered this show during the beginning of my first trimester. Boy was it a life savor!! Abigail is not so much a TV watcher. Or a sitter for that matter!! Being nauseous and a rambunctious toddler don't always mix! Thankfully we found this show and it bought me some moments of calm and quiet! It's actually a great show and full of lots of wonderful lessons for kids. Abigail is constantly singing all of their songs!

One of Abigail's biggest loves are books. She loves being read to, "reading" to herself, flipping through the pages...any and all of it! Her favorite right now is Curious George. We have read most of them. Abigail can even "read" the entire Curious George book word for word. It's over 25 pages!! Abigail does a pretty good job of entertaining herself. Most of the time, if she is quiet, she's in the playroom reading. It's the cutest!! 

Like we said above, Abigail learned to ride her bike this year!! Yay!! She went from not being able to pedal to flying wildly around the house. Abigail is always asking us to move all of the chairs in the kitchen so that she can go as fast as possible without any obstacles!

Abigail is quite the little fashionista! She loves clothes, jewelry, makeup....you name it. She picks out Colin's outfit almost every day and night! Abigail certainly has her favorites and will sometimes pick the same shirt every. single. night for Colin to wear. She likes what she likes!! For her birthday, she requested Colin's orange short sleeve polo. Very specific!

So far she's not seeming too interested in sports, despite our "encouraging ways!!" Abigail does, however, get very excited about gymnastics and ballet so we're looking into that for the Spring. How exciting!! She also loves dancing, so who knows!! We could have a girlie girl on our hands!!

Abigail is getting very excited about becoming a big sister! She talks constantly about all of the things she is going to do with her baby brother. Abigail loves to feel my belly when he kicks and give him some tickles to make him laugh:-) Abigail's most recent favorite is to give him LOTS and LOTS of kisses. She loves her baby brother<3 Of course, Abigail lets us know that she is not going to share everything with her baby brother, but.....Abigail has, however,  volunteered to change all of his diapers! Score!! Whenever we talk about going somewhere she'll say "Don't forget about my baby brother!!" Love her!!

We love you, sweet baby girl, more than words could ever describe!!  You are just the sweetest, most loving little girl ever. Those cheeks....we could kiss them all day long!! We are so honored to be your Mommy and Daddy!! You will always be our baby girl:-) xoxo