I feel like my little girl has really grown and changed in the last 6 months! Of course, this makes me proud and excited, but on the other hand, it makes me SAD to see her growing up! I was just telling her tonight how I was looking through some pics of her when she was a baby and how tiny and sweet she was... I miss that baby girl! But am so proud of the little lady she's becoming :-)
In this last 6 months, Rhyan and I have enjoyed some girl time. She's become the best little shopping buddy! Although, if I tell her that, she promptly says "i am NOT a buddy! I am a GIRL!" haha
She has hit the emotional 3 year old phase. :-( She is tenderhearted and gets her feelings hurt pretty easily. But whats worse is that she cries if she gets embarassed. And she gets embarrassed easily! If she thinks you're making fun of her at ALL, she boohoo's. She's not a girl that can laugh at herself... this reminds me SO much of myself when I was little. Heck, it reminds me of myself now! Difference is, I now better understand that I'm like that because I'm insecure... and I also know that I dont have any reason to be really. Neither does she! But it will take time for her to gain confidence... something we pray the Lord will give her. The ability to laugh at yourself and your mistakes is a GREAT trait in life... one worth working to achieve!
Rhyan still sucks her fingers when she sleeps :-(. This is, again, something we talk to her about a LOT. She tells me that she tries to not suck them, but that she neeeeeds to so she can sleep. Poor baby. We will resort to gloves or something in the new year... but I know it will be hard for her to learn to self soothe w/o it.
She is much more willing to try stuff by herself these days, although she still has times that she wants to be right with me... which I dont mind a bit :-)
Rhyan is VERY into "Tangled" (the movie) and wants her hair to be long like Rapunzel's! So, its growing. She also refuses to allow me to put it up in ANY way. No pony tails. no braids. no half up... Just down. Like Rapunzels. It drives me nuts! She is enjoying playing dress up and is showing more of an imagination as of late, but it is still obvious that she is a concrete, literal thinker. She still prefers to sit and do puzzles or play her memory game with me over any game of pretend. She loves to be chased but it almost always ends in her crying for some reason... I think its a girl thing... I'm still that way. Love the chase, hate being caught. HA!
Rhyan now has 4 things she must do each night before bedtime and for the most part she does them well! 1.Go potty 2. Wash hands 3.Brush teeth 4. Put on night time panties and pj's. She can FINALLY fully dress and undress herself. Tracy and I were talking about how we needed to work on this with Rhyan as she is the kind of kid who is pretty content letting you do things for her that she feels she may not be able to do herself successfully (she's a bit of a "if i might fail i wont even try" kind of kid... again, a trait i easily recognize b/c i see it in myself). So we had a few rough days with her learning to take shirts off by herself (admittedly a tough task to learn) but now she is QUITE independent and will not allow for any help :-)
In this last 6 months, my mom accidentally bought her a 100 piece puzzle at a yard sale. She assumed it was a typical kids 24 or 36 piece and just didnt look at the box very well. I hid it from Rhyan b/c I kind of detest puzzles and didnt want to get "stuck" helping... but she found it. And to my astonishment, she put the whole thing together by herself. It blew us all away. She's not even 3.5 at this point and did a 100 piece puzzle slated for 5+ years! I know every mom thinks their kid is genius, but for real... thats pretty good, right?!
Gotta love my kids crazy hair. This is a typical bedhead for her... and it doesnt even phase her! Those curls are insane!!! And she HATES having it brushed (um, b/c its so tangled all the time!)
Rhyan is quite bossy! She thinks its ok to tell Jeff and I to not sing, not dance, basically not do anything she doesnt like at that moment. We repeatedly tell her that she's not the boss and that its not nice to try to tell people what to do all the time. I was re-reading pre-school wise searching for answers and read a section i have marked and underlined, but apparently had forgotten. In short, the Ezzos talk about how children who have too many choices start to think that they are at a minimum your peer, at best your boss. Its not life changing choices that make them feel this way. Its when you put their milk in a blue cup and they tell you they want the pink cup and you, thinking "no big deal", switch to the pink cup. It re-iterates that they are in charge. So the Ezzo's recommend keeping choices to a minimum at this age for the sake of them not getting "too big for their britches" as we say around here :-) This is something we've worked on and seen pretty good changes. Of course, its always harder to un-do what has been done (which is why its so important to be intentional in our parenting!) but its worth the effort!
Rhyan is a GREAT big sister. She tells her brother anytime he has a fit over not getting his way (which is a LOT) that "its ok buddy! you're ok!". They play together SO well and love each other! She told me recently that "Mackey is my best friend!" and my absolute favorite quote about him as I was getting ready to put him to bed is, "dont put him away, yet, mommy! i'm gonna play with him"... like he's a TOY! So cute :-)
Rhyan is a decent eater, but tries to hold out for snacks if we let her. So in return, she's skinnier than I would like. Still healthy and all, I just like a chunky baby. I know, i know, she's not a baby. But it'd be nice to have some remnants of some baby fat to make me THINK she's still my baby!
She is still a great night time sleeper, although she goes through stages of coming in our room in the middle of the night asking to get in bed with us (which we never oblige). She still wears pull ups to bed and sleeps HARD enough that she doesnt realize she goes pee in them. She almost always wakes up and tells me she kept them dry, but they are not. ha. The dr said this is totally normal for hard sleepers and that theres nothing to do about it... she needs her consecutive night time sleep (so do we) and she'll grow out of it in time. She still naps from 12:30 or 1pm-between 3-4pm each day. She occasionally takes a while to fall asleep only if she has not been active in the morning. She goes to bed at 8pm each night and gets up at 7am.
Rhyan,
Your daddy and I adore you! You are so fun and can be SO sweet and compassionate, loving and kind! You share so well when you want to and I see the heart of Jesus within you. I also see sin, which is what I expect to see. So we continue to work on lots of things like how to speak nicely to people, how to ask nicely for things and how to share when you DONT want to :-) These are things Mommy and Daddy are still working on at our old ages, so its normal... we're all working on it together!
Your little brother, mack, loooooves you! And you get along great! You love to imitate one another and you are so proud of him for all of his new words. You get so excited that "Mack can TALK!" and you try to teach him new words all the time. You're so sweet with him (usually)!
You obey me (your Mommy) pretty well. You test me at times, which I expect, but overall you are very obedient and helpful. You do not obey your daddy quite so well, but thats because he is a softie... which he is working on :-) haha.
You love to sing, play games, do puzzles, play outside, pet spud, visit family, go to church, play with Shelby, help take care of Colt, be a mommy to your babies, play in your kitchen and watch tv.
You are so verbal and talk all the time. I have no idea where you get that from ;-)
And i simply adore you. You bring pure joy to my life and I'm proud to be your mommy!
