Current changes mean that baby girl isn't a baby anymore....

I still can't believe that Faith is three years old!  Seriously!  Where has the time gone?

Well, back in July of last year, we moved Faith from a day care center to a preschool.  We had looked into this particular preschool before, but they wouldn't take kids until they were two.  When a spot finally opened up for her, we jumped and moved her immediately!

That being said, since the move, her daddy and I can see a HUGE difference in her.  She knew her alphabets at an early age, but she has since learned her numbers, her shaped, and her colors.  She talks like a child well beyond her years and is fairly smart for her age.

Since she knows her letters, we decided that it was time that she start learning to read and write words.  Daddy has been practicing with her on his days offs on how to perfect writing her name.  Last night she came over to me on the couch and showed me her latest piece of work.

Not bad for a 3-year old!

Daddy had written her name in the top corner of her board and she did her best to copy it.  She was all proud of herself.  He then started writing words on the board and had her reading them.  Like I said, smart girl!

Another transition in our household has been a long time coming.  You see, Faith was still sleeping in her crib.  And now that she's turned three, and we are talking about trying for another child, it was time to transition her from her crib to a toddler bed.  Since her crib is a convertible bed, it meant taking one of the sides off the crib.  Lucky for us, my brother had saved the bed wing that my nephews had used as little kids and gave it to us to use.

I came home from work yesterday to find that daddy had finally made the change.  Needless to say, Faith was excited.  On the other hand, mommy and daddy were afraid of what might happen, mainly about her getting out of bed and playing instead of sleeping or waking up early and coming into our room and waking us up.

Well, when it came time to put her to bed in her new big girl bed, she was excited.  We proceeded with our normal bedtime routine and put her to bed just like we did every night and left her room.  When I went to check on her about an hour later because I had thought I had heard a thump come from her room upstairs, we found her fast sleep.  Success on the first night. 

I just love watching my baby sleep!

Clovis Dynamos

Well, Faith had her first soccer practice/game on Saturday and she was so excited.  It was all she could talk about during the week.  We signed Faith up for the Clovis Little Kickers, which is for ages 3 to 5. 

Before the excitement wore off.

When we showed up, we sat through a brief parent's meeting to explain the process and meet the coaches.  Once the meeting was done, we were sent to our respective fields to meet our coaches and get our shirts and socks.  Faith has two coaches and is on the Dynamo team and her team color is orange.

In this league, they practice and play a game at the same time.  The coaches split the team in half and one team goes to play in the game while the other half stays and practices drills.

Yes, she's the tiny little girl drinking out of her sippy cup.

 Well, the first day didn't go as expected.  Once they broke up into two groups, Faith was in the group that stayed and practiced drills first.  She didn't want anything to do with the coaches or the other players or even the drill.  She just clung to me and threw a fit.  Eventually, one of the coaches came over to her and got her involved enough that I was able to walk away and let her take it all in.

Getting ready to work on her dribbling technique.

When it came to game time, it was a whole other story.  She cried!  And I mean cried...as in tears coming out of her eyes!  Why you ask?  Because she wanted to play the game with her own ball instead of the game ball.

Lesson number one for her first season of soccer....her own ball stays home on game days!

3rd Birthday

My baby girl turned three on Friday, March 1st.  My how time flies.  It just seems like we brought her home from the hospital yesterday!

 

I still cannot believe how much she has changed and grown in just three short years.  She is a great combination of both her daddy and her mommy.  She has momma's looks and daddy's temperament.  I love it!  I always tell Kevin that is she so much her father's daughter!

Since her birthday fell on Friday and a day which she has preschool, her Titi sent her a bouquet of balloons, which I'm told by her teachers was the hit of the day for the entire class, and I brought her entire class mini cupcakes to celebrate her special day.

On Saturday, we went shopping to finish up getting things for her birthday party and did a little shopping for Easter decorations for the house.  Before we started off on our momma/daughter shopping adventure, I treated her to a birthday mani/pedi.

Sitting in her princess chair. 
(Mani/Pedi at Aqua Nail Salon in Clovis)

I let her pick out whatever color she wanted.  Before we got there, she told me she wanted purple.  Well, it turned out that she wanted  my toes to be a shimmery purple and hers to be orange!  I let it be.  It was, after all, her birthday.

While we were planning her birthday, I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted.  She looked at me and told me she wanted a "Dora the Explorer" birthday Party.  Well....Dora the Explorer party is what she got.  We sent out Dora invitations, had a Dora cake with Dora toys in it, Dora plates and napkins, and Dora wrapping paper.  I even made Dora's backpack as goody bags for all of the kids!

Hand made by me
(idea came from Pinterest)

 I also searched esty.com for some ideas on outfits.  I ended up ordering Faith this shirt.  She was so excited when she saw it for the first time.  (And yes, even the bow in her hair is Dora.) 

Shirt from etsy.com; skirt and shoes from Target;
bow from Best Kept Secret

 We decided to have her birthday party at Adventure Park in Visalia since all of our family lives in Visalia.  It tends to be easier to bring the party to our family rather than have them drive the way from Visalia.


Blowing out the candles on her Dora cake.
(Picture courtesy of Auntie Vicky!)

Needless to say, she had a great time with all of her cousins and friends that came to the party.  Everyone showered her with tons of gifts, most of which were Dora related.  (Go figure, right!)