Our B turned 3 on July 16. My kids know their birthday is basically a "yes day" for them and the older 3 take full advantage of that. Brooklyn was just so laid back and chill. She didn't make any demands or ask for anything out of the ordinary. She wanted her regular breakfast and regular lunch. Because her older siblings were camping with Grandma and Grandpa and dad was at work all day, we decided to give her one present on her birthday, and the rest the following day when we'd all be together. She didn't even make a peep about having only having the one gift (I'm confident that wouldn't have been the case with the other 3). We went to Olive Garden with my parents for dinner, since she also shares her birthday with my dad. She very happily ate 3 helpings of salad, including a giant slice of tomato, a couple pieces from broccoli from my mom's plate, and barely had any room for her pizza or ice cream. Her siblings would have been insulted.
I took her out earlier in the week for her "birthday date". She wanted to go to the library so we started there. Then we went to the mall and checked out the Disney store. She enjoyed looking around, but didn't ask me for a single thing. I told her we could have lunch there and she asked me for her regular lunch (crackers, cheese, sausage, red pepper, fruit). I did manage to convince her to get ice cream, and when I told her she could choose whatever we wanted at the chocolate store, she chose one small chocolate bar. Claire's was the same thing. She had a gift card to spend, but only asked for two very inexpensive bracelets. I couldn't tempt her with anything else. She knew what she wanted and that was it. Part of me was a little sad that she wasn't taking advantage of this opportunity to splurge a bit, but the other part of me was relieved that she wasn't tempted by all the flashy things she could buy. I was very much the same growing up, and I saved most of my birthday money over the years, allowing me to buy my own car at 17. Obviously the time together was the most important gift I wanted to give her.
The day after her birthday, when everyone was able to be together, we had a brisket lunch and opened the rest of her presents. It was pretty chill just like the rest of her birthday week, and for the most part just like her.
B generally doesn't like being put on the spot, so she was reluctant to give me a birthday interview, but I did get some answers out of her.
What's your name: Bookwyn (or sometimes Bucklyn)
How old are you: Fwee
What's your favourite colour: purple
What's your favourite food: chicken and noodles, no, ice cream and sprinkles
What's your favourite movie: the dragon movie (Raya and the Last Dragon)
What's your favourite animal: a kitty and my bunny (stuffed bunny)
Best thing about being 3: I'm fwee!
This little girl just weighed in at 27.5 lbs. 1.5lbs shy of her older sister. She is still smaller than average though, around the 20th percentile. She has all of her teeth, is potty trained, and had her first (yes seriously) hair cut last month. She's got the sweetest little curls at the back, but the front and top is all straight and grows forward. She's basically rocking a reverse mullet. She has the cutest scrunchy faced smile.
She is a great eater. Probably my best. She will eat all the green things- salad, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus (she calls it "green beef" because I served it with beef once), green beans, peas... She loves pasta of any variety and chicken is her favourite protein. She is a chocolate lover, but isn't overly big on sweets other than some varieties of penny candy and ice cream. She much prefers savoury snacks like popcorn and chips.
B still puts herself down for naps on occasion. Most of them are what we call "angry naps". She gets mad about something, storms off into her room, and then doesn't emerge because she's asleep in her bed. We try and avoid this, because it leads to her partying all night, but sometimes it's like waking the dead trying to rouse her from a unsanctioned nap. She is not the quickest to fall asleep at night though, even with no nap. She can be in her room for over an hour reading or playing with a barbie after we put her to bed, before she falls asleep.
Brooklyn loves to dress up. Sometimes I change her outfit like 6 times in a day so she can go back and forth between playing outside and being a princess inside. She likes to sing at the top of her lungs and do just dance videos.
B isn't the most outgoing person, and she can take a while to warm up to people. But she feels much braver if her siblings are around.
She likes to be organized and have things just so (don't even try to move something she has put in its place).
Her favourite thing to do is play on the swings at the park or play in water.
She has a special relationship with her Granny (my mum) and loves spending time with her. She prefers Granny over everybody 99% of the time.
She can count to 20 or more, knows her colours and shapes, can tell you her birthday and spell her name. She likes "learning" books where she gets to identify different things, that list the alphabet, or that involve counting.
She is probably my most well mannered child, and almost never forgets a "thank you".
I'm a horrible mother and haven't written down any funny quips. Normally I would tell Gordon is she did or said something funny on messenger, then I just search the kids names in our conversation and look at all the references. Unfortunately because I refer to her as "B" most of the time, I can't search one letter. Either I'll have to make sure I refer to her as Brooklyn or actually write them down like I used to do when I had two kids haha.
One story that I do remember (because it was like 2 weeks ago) was her coaching me on my driving skills. She kept announcing the colour of every traffic light when we approached and directed me to either stop or go. (She was, however, stumped on the orange light.) She then started emphatically telling my "DRIVE MOM!" We were moving, so I wasn't sure what she was talking about. Then she yelled "TWO HANDS". So I put both hands on the wheel to humour her. "DRIVE MOM!" Finally I figured, after enduring many minutes of yelling, that because we were going straight and therefore I wasn't really turning the steering wheel, it looked like I wasn't driving. She wasn't overly accepting of this explanation, so she continued to instruct me on how to drive for the rest of the ride.
If I needed to use 3 words to describe her they would be independent, imaginative, and clever. She always wants to do things or figure things out on her own, and gets really easily frustrated if she can't do something by herself. B is great at playing make believe. She loves creating games with little action figures and barbies. She picks things up really fast and has a good memory.
She is very excited to start playschool this fall with Teacher Debbie!
Here's to another year with this gem!
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