Annea is Three!!

Annea is three. She is lively and engaging and adorable so much of the time. She is sweet. She tells jokes, endears herself quickly to people, and puts G's into words they don't belong. Such as: Gazebra (zebra), gazert (dessert), gabrito (burrito), gortilla (tortilla), gabana (banana), and once I heard her describe something as "gistusting" (disgusting). She's funny. She perseverates much more than the other girls did at this age, gets stuck on a track, is a broken record about something she wants, is un-distractable. She now acknowledges, after much discussion, that it's hard to wait for things. (A well earned lesson, it took two days of talking about it non-stop to realize that she was going to have to wait for her birthday. And she now frequently comments that it is hard to wait.)

It's amazing, having her be three, because she's the last of the Lewihicans and all of ages one and two are now water under the bridge. Done is the baby stuff, done is the toddler chasing, almost done are the small kid things to worry about and deal with. Annea still lets me snuggle and kiss her, wants to be held and carried around at times, and it's easy to squeeze her and try to be present and soaking it all up, her three-ness, her smallness, her growingness. I see how capable Adessa is, how capable Eliana is getting, and I know the time of doing everything for everyone is almost over. There's not very much bitter about that, mostly sweet, but I'm told I'll miss it later.

*For the record, I've been feeling triumphant over my yelling, I think I've made strides towards being a less-angry mama. I am more patient, I am kinder, I am enjoying them more. Sometimes I think my praying and hard work in the anger-department might have paid off. And sometimes I think I may actually have not grown at all, it may be that I have just waited out the hard parts, time has passed and the girls are so much easier now. Rarely now is there more than one freak-out at a time (two kids crying at the same time makes my brain short-circuit), and there's more space in between freak outs for everyone to collect themselves and regroup. Whatever it is, I am happy about it. Onward!

Playing at the park.

I Love Sushi was her chosen birthday dinner.

Birthday party! Without a nap!