So I haven’t done one of these post in a year! Wow time has flown by. Bella is now 3 years old. I won’t have official measurements until August 2nd when she goes in for her 3 year check up, but i can tell you she is about 40 inches tall and around 35lbs.Edit: She is 39.75 inches tall and 34lbs 9oz. Mommy was so close So she is growing like a weed! Her hair is finally getting to the point where we can do stuff with it. As you can see from the picture I finally got bows in pig tails. That’s pretty much it though. She doesn’t want it up any other way! But I’ll take what I can get. I’m tempted to get it trimmed, but not sure I want to go back to shorter hair.
Sleeping: Bella is finally getting back into a routine of sleeping through the night. We have had our ups and downs with that over the last year. We went through a phase where she would just climb into bed with us. Now our only problem is getting to to sleep at night. We have our little routine of Bath, Jammies, book with mommy and then into bed. But often times once in bed she needs one toy that she forgot to get, always a drink of water and a book to read herself. Naps are hit or miss. If we are at home I can always get one to be at least 45 mins, but if we are on the go or visiting friends and family she often skips them. I miss her long naps! Oh her semi normal nap time is from 12-2 and nighttime sleep is 8:30/9 to 6am. Sometimes if I'm lucky she will come sleep with me for a bit after waking up at 6. Often times not and she watches PBS Kids on tv.
Eating: She is gaining weight so I know she is eating, but it’s really hit or miss at meals. Foods that she will eat and eat will one day be on the icky list. It seems she still loves her fruit and veggies though. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, watermelon, broccoli, pea and corn are always on the Hit list. Meal choices that seems to work are Grilled cheese, PB and Jelly(strawberry-homemade freezer jam), chicken nuggets and Mac N Cheese(kraft only). We continue to offer other foods and then give her the choice of dry cereal if she doesn’t want to eat what we are having. More times then not she refuses the food all together and is off playing. We have been doing better at limiting her snacking which does help for meal times and keeping the snacks pretty healthy for her. We also stick to milk and water for drinks unless she hasn’t pooped in a day or we don’t have much fruit, then she gets a juice box, which are 100% juice no additives.
Potty Training: Oh how i wish i could say we were done with this. We have been off and on with this for the last year. A lot of it was due to me and just not willing to deal with the mess while traveling. But in the last couple weeks we pretty much have gone cold turkey and she only gets to wear a pull up to bed at night. I think we might be able to limit those once we get day time down pat as she often is not very wet in the morning when she gets dressed. We are doing well for days. I think we are going on 4 days of no pee accidents. Our only problem is we just take her to the potty at certain times, she doesn’t care to tell us she has to go until she’s already wet her underwear. Also she hates to poop on the potty. We use any bribe we can think of to get her poop on the potty, but she’s just not ready for it yet, i guess. Honsetly I'm just glad to be done with diapers for a bit.
Playtime: Oh Bella loves to play. She has a great imagination these days. She loves to have Tea parties with just about anyone. She still loves her animals and has so many i don’t even bother to keep track anymore, but she can tell you what she has or doesn’t have. Even the doubles she loves, since then they match. Bella tries to match everything. She’s pretty good at finding matches too. Mimi and Sophie are her two babies and she loves to undress them, feed them and just take care of them. They have to sleep with her every night.
Drawing, writing and coloring are another playtime favorite. She can write her name if you help her spell it, but can spell her name on her own when not writing, so yeah not sure about that. Just this week she managed to color in the lines! I’m sure it’s a fluke, but still it was cool to see. She can make a circle, triangle and square/rectangle. Stickers are fun too and she love all types.
Reading is also a good past time. Often she wants to read herself and it’s so cute to listen to the story as told by her. She has so many books that she likes to read that I’m not sure she could memorize them. We tend to get a handful of books every week from the library and she loves to have her “new” books read to her. Right now she loves her bird book from Grandma Judy. The book was brand new when we got it a month ago and now it looks like it through a war.
She loves her animals; real, pretend, or in books. She can pick out quite a few birds thanks to her book. She also can tell you the difference between a Holstein Cow, Holstein heifer, Holstein calf, beef cows or beef calves. I’m trying to teach her about brown cows, but we don't have enough of them around here. LOL She also can point out horses from a mile away. The zoo is still a favorite location and she refers to it as her zoo.
Outside Play: Bella loves to be outside as long as it’s not too hot. The too cold didn’t bother her this year, but we shall see for this upcoming winter. In the recent heat wave Bella has pointed out it’s too hot outside. She loves her sandbox and the lime pile Daddy keeps in the barn. She can find entertainment with just about anything outside in the barn. She has no fear of the cows and considers them all her pets with the exception of Brownie, since that’s mom’s cow. She often goes outside while Daddy milks. She has mastered her tricycle and loves to ride it. She was lucky enough to get a Barbie jeep power wheels, but things it’s too loud and goes to fast. LOL She loves to swim in the pool and can do so with her “wings” on. They are really puddle jumpers and i highly recommend them. We finally got the backyard fenced in, so once the pool is down she will have a safe place to play with her toys and playhouse. She is working on learning to jump rope and play basketball. She loves to Fish and is pretty good at it. she is trying to learn how to cast herself, but it’s a bit confusing with the button.
Farm: Bella loves to go for tractor rides with Daddy. Just this year she has gotten to help plant the corn, mow the yard and move round bales. She is very much a John Deere girl. She loves to point out the tractors too. She also seems to know what Daddy is doing on the farm too. Often Josh will just mention to me what he’s doing on the farm and Bella picks up on it and then later on will tell me what Daddy is doing. She’s picking up quickly on different machinery and loves to be out where there action is.
Bella quirks: She’s very sensitive to loud noises. Just a truck passing on the street next to us and she likes to cover her ears. This of course makes it hard for her when we are around a lot of people.
She doesn’t like when people touch her. She needs to warm up to you first and come around on her terms. She has a bubble and likes to keep new people out of it.
She’s still very shy in new places. It takes her a bit to warm up. She’s finally getting better at telling us what makes up upset or shy around people, which is so helpful.
She rarely sleeps in the car anymore and has to watch “tv” when we go on our long trips (30 mins or longer in the car).
To take Naps, she needs to wear her pj’s.
Some of Bella’s favorite phrases: What are you doing guys? Where are we going today? If you ask her if she wants to go somewhere she asks to the other people around “do you want to come with us?” “ I told you guys” Every car ride “are we going to see my horses?” If you call her something like trouble or cute she replies with “ No I'm Isabella Marie Warpinski”
She knows she is about to become a big sister. She knows where the baby is, what the baby is. She’s starting to understand some things are for the baby and some things are just for Big Girls like her. She is very much into being a Big girl and doesn’t want to be a baby again. She’s pretty eager for the baby right now. She even asked to have the baby in her tummy for while.
The other big thing coming up is Bella will go to preschool two days a week starting in September. She so badly wants to go to school.
Everything else:
Bella still loves Diego and loves to watch him at anytime. Max and Ruby, WordWorld, and My little Pony are next in line.
She loves to pick out her clothes especially dresses.
Her favorite color changes by the minute but Pink, Green and Blue seem to be the most common
Her favorite book is her Book about Birds followed by just about anyone she thinks is “new”
She loves Band-aids and needs them to make every little cut or bump better.
She loves Princesses and My little ponies. The only princess she can actually name though is Ariel.
She likes to play “hopscotch”
She love jumping on to things. She is learning to jump on only one foot and getting pretty good at it.
She has the funniest dances..and loves to sing.
She’s not much of a cuddler anymore but when she wants it she will ask for it.
She will rub her head up to you like a cow or cat does. Took us forever to figure out why she did that.
She is a mini actress right now.. the moods change with the drop of a hat. (i blame this on age 3)
She always has to have Pink blanket and cow blank( as she calls it) to see.. often times she needs Mimi and Sophie. Those are her only two babies that she loves.. the rest or just hit or miss. As of right now Sophie and Mimi are her babies that need everything that a real baby does. She also uses Peas and Carrot(the kittens) as babies too! She loves to hold Carrot like a baby, rock him and sing to him. It’s too cute.
She loves to get mail. It doesn’t even really need to be for her and she will still be happy as can be.
She calls Gasser’s Grasser’s and the gas Station is Grass Station. Yellow is ellow. Snoofy is Snoopy. Icone is Pine Cone
I”m sure there is way more that I'm missing, but if you read the blog and keep up on facebook, you are in the loop. So far it’s been a great three years with her and I”m looking forward to many more!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLA MARIE!
From Birth
To Age Three
