a big girl now

Marryn celebrated her 3rd birthday the other day (okay, so it was really about 2 weeks ago...). We had originally planned on visiting the Denver Zoo, since her birthday was on a Saturday and we've never taken her to the zoo, but things just didn't work out that way. Instead we just tried to make a fun day at home for her. Grandma Jean purchased her a play kitchen (the really cute one from Target), and I put it together the night before (shame I waited until about 1am to start, it took me about 3 hours...but it wasn't really hard...I don't know...). So she woke up to that and also a fun Hello Kitty decorated table. She got to open a few presents throughout the day and then we took her to Red Robin for dinner, of which they sang their Happy Birthday song with a special ice cream. Then we went to Target to get another kitchen toy. Afterwards we finished opening the rest of her birthday gifts. I had baked her a strawberry cake (she picked it out) and frosted it using fondant. (A little tip, be sure to flavor it first.) I was so proud of myself and it looked so cute! So then Joey lit her candles, only to have Marryn blow them out right away! So we reminded her to wait until we sang Happy Birthday, then she could blow them out. She really enjoyed her birthday. I had bought her a cute shirt, from Gap of course, that said "Birthday Girl" on it, and she would tell people that she was 3 now, not 2, but not actually mention that it was her birthday. Funny thing was when someone would ask her what she did for her birthday, she's tell them she went to the zoo. Oops. She's still young enough though that I think I was more upset then she was. I really want to make each of my kids' birthdays special, but after this day, I realized that special doesn't mean "big, expensive, extravagant". It just has to be special. A thing as small as getting fun party plates was special enough for Marryn and I pray that it will always be that way.

Well, along with a birthday comes a yearly check-up. Marryn is now officially 30 pounds. With jeans, boots and 2 shirts-it was a very chilly day! That puts her in the 50th percentile and she was 3 feet 1 inch, 40th percentile. And Marryn was not afraid of the doctor this time! She was a bit hesitant when he first walked in, but then giggled throughout the rest of the exam! Since her 2 year check-up, she has been extremely afraid of the doctors (sadly, we had quite a few visits this past year), and she is not afraid of anyone! I was quite embarrassed though when the doctor asked how she was doing with potty training, seeing that she was wearing a diaper. But he gave me just the motivation I needed....

The next day I set out to "train" Marryn. I put her in underwear and set the timer for every hour. Not once did she go IN THE TOILET! I was at my wit's end by the end of the day, I was ready to give up, give up being a mom! It was an awful day. Then, later that night she wandered on down to the bathroom and soon I heard, "I did it! I peed in the toilet!" Joey, who was working in the room next to the bathroom came running out yelling, "She did! I heard it!" Of course she had peed in her underwear and the floor, but also in the toilet! Later she did number 2 all by herself. The next day was the BEST day! Not an accident! Although she didn't always get to toilet in time and it didn't always go in the toilet.... She has only had a couple accidents since and is now getting better getting it in the toilet. We've gone out in public as well without any problems!

And now Marryn is going to preschool. Grandpa Dave offered to pay for her preschool, if we didn't qualify for Head Start (which we didn't and I'm glad). So she is going to Miss Elaine's Preschool. There are 3 other kids, all which are in Marryn's nursery class at church and it's right down the road. She'll go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30am. She went last Thursday for the first time and LOVED IT! Afterwards she just kept telling me about everything they did, who she played with and that she went potty in Miss Elaine's toilet. Miss Elaine said that Marryn had quite the vocabulary and was fun to converse with.