Nora- 3.5 years

Nora,

You are a dear. You have so much spunky personality that I just want to freeze you at this age sometimes so we can spend the rest of our days snuggling and talking about princesses. 

Some of my favorite things about you:

1) The way you sing when you play. You pick up tunes from different songs (a lot of times they are Christmas melodies) and put your own words to them and sing to your little dolls and people. You have a good voice and you get the notes right too. You especially love "doe, a deer" from the Sound of Music and you also like to sing Audrey Assad's album Fortunate Fall.

2) You have the best imagination. We are always finding you coming up with the most interesting (and often hilarious) combinations of toys. It is fascinating to watch you play, just fascinating. You love Squinkies and dress-up. But you play with your brothers toys too and find ways to incorporate boyish play with your own girlie style.

3) You say the cutest things. The other day you said you wanted to marry Enna. I told you that you couldn't marry your sister, to which you responded emphatically, "You can if it is TRUE LOVE!" I think someone has been watching Frozen too many times. :)

4) You are an excellent big sister (and little sister too!). You are very helpful to Enna and are very excited for her to grow up and "be a girl" so you can play together. You are also very gentle with her and you often sit near her to play which is very sweet.

5) You love to pray. And you pray the sweetest little prayers. You often pray for everybody to be happy and not scream and cry (usually when you are having one of your highly emotional days). You also thank God for lots of things. It is absolutely precious!

Nora, you are a strong-willed little thing too and there are many things you dislike at this age.

1) You are very picky about foods. You used to love everything and try everything, but now you are super super picky and won't try new foods at all. I am guessing it is a phase and you will grow out of it.

2) You don't like to sleep. Never have. Bedtime comes as a surprise (and disappointment) to you every night. "But I don't want to go to sleep" or "I'm not tired" are the phrases we commonly hear. You often protest the loudest when you are the most tired and after a loud profession of "I'm not even sleepy!" we will most likely find you conked out somewhere.

3) You don't like to be taught things. You like to do things yourself and are not in a hurry to learn new information. You like to dress yourself, and you don't like wearing jeans. You like dresses and lots of hair accessories. We cannot usually dissuade you once you have your mind made up in the fashion department. Some day I have a feeling you will look back at pictures and wonder why I let you wear what you were wearing and I will tell you that you will understand when you have your own 3 year old daughter. :)

You are a delight and joy and you love everyone so much! You give the best hugs and love to cuddle. Some of the sweetest moments are when I lie in bed with you at night until you fall asleep and you giggle and smile at me and then close your eyes and drift off. My legs stick out far from the end of you toddler bed and we are so crammed in there, but you are so happy when I am with you. It makes me happy too, even after a long day of demands to meet, dirty dishes, crying baby, and the like, I am so happy in those still sweet moments with you.

I love you,

Mama