Last Day as a Two-Year-Old

My baby is turning 3 tomorrow. I'm both happy and sad about it. Three is a magical age, I believe, when they are so sweet and innocent but also starting to be rational. The last few months have been delightful as Emma learned to read, count, emote, describe, play, empathize, influence, and even manipulate. But this also means, she moves out of the toddler stage into the preschooler age, and I feel an even more awesome burden of making sure I am able to lay the appropriate foundation for the rest of her life!


While I'm figuring that out, here are some recent observations about my almost-three-year-old:
- She is quickly losing her baby talk. We mourned the day she quit saying "fwowey" for flower last summer. Lately, she has been correctly saying "another ____" instead of "another one ____" as in "Please bless Mommy and Daddy to have another one baby."
- She can count to 20, but consistently leaves out 15. Not sure why. We're working on it.
- She seems to find joy wherever, and THAT is a great trait that I do not possess. On our way to the car after my doctor's appointment today, she said, "That was a lot of fun, Mom." And I didn't even have my iPad with me.
- She can "read" (i.e. recite from memory, probably) the entire Sandra Boynton book, Opposites. I know it only has a few words per page, but to hear her read it to her dad is truly priceless.
- She earned her first treat for potty-training today. We are ecstatic for this progress. She earned 7 stickers (7 attempts, 3 successes) for her Dora potty chart, so we bought Jelly Belly and Blow Pops for treat. As we walked towards the store, she said, "I think we should buy two lollipops, Mama." When I asked why, she said, "One for Mommy, one for Emma."
The best part of my day was listening to her say her prayer, all by herself, a dominant theme in our daily life. It went like this:
"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the day.
Thank you for Mommy, and all that she does for us.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."


She does love me, maybe almost as much as she loves her daddy.