It’s Superbowl Sunday! Wait, am I allowed to say the word “superbowl”? Or do I have to do the dancing around all the TV commercials do? Big game! Football day! Nationally eating stuff event! I do plan to eat all the stuff, although I’m lucky enough to be attending a party where someone else is doing all the cooking.

Sunday:

One in a set of about fifty

Watching Star Wars, obvs

They are sitting like that because that is how one sits when singing “Do You Want To Build A Snowman”.

Monday:

Dinosaur attack!

More dinosaurs at her 3 year well-baby

No idea what wore this kid out but he CRASHED

Tuesday:

It was 4 degrees but they insist on waiting outside for the bus

Fashionista

Their first trip to DQ

Wednesday:

Very cold twins

Patiently waiting to get in the pool

Visiting our lobster friends

Thursday:

She was happy (if cold) at 8:30 am

But when I picked her up at 11:30 she was HYSTERICAL and said her ear hurt. Poor baby was right and wins the award for the first Davis child to get an ear infection. She was back to normal after 24 hours of meds and luckily loves the taste of amoxicillin.

Attempt #2 at McDonald’s biscuits was failure #2

Friday:

She has an active imagination

Ugh. Even worse, I have to do federal taxes next.

Cuddles

Saturday:

Morning ballet…

…afternoon sing-a-long…

…evening bread hugging. Weirdos.

I am behind on literally everything I’m supposed to be doing right now, but I have high hopes I’ll be able to catch up this week. I also have some exciting weekend plans involving seeing some of my very favorite people in the world. Just keep your fingers crossed we don’t get a snowstorm late in the week that keeps me trapped at home and moping instead of once again eating all the things.

I stopped doing Caroline’s monthly updates because it seemed so unnecessary – she had reached all her milestones and it was sort of boring (and braggy) to repeat over and over that my toddler was a genius. But then suddenly I realized it was November and we were only a few weeks away from 36 months old and I was going NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.

But it’s definitely true. She may actually have been 3 for the last 6 months and I was just counting wrong. It seemed ridiculous to call her 2 when she never uses her a stroller, goes to a real preschool class, has no fear of new things or people, dresses herself, can order her own food at restaurants, sits through a full-length movie in a theater, and can sled down big giant hills without freaking out even a little bit.

(FTR, there’s a chain link fence at the bottom of that hill so they couldn’t go out into the road. It’s a perfect sledding hill.)

I think she acts so grown up because I treat her like she’s grown up. I expect the same things from her that I expect from her 4 1/2 year old brother, which might not always been fair for her but she handles incredibly well. It also makes my life easier, since they’re able to play together, share together and help take care of each other (and me – let’s be honest, being able to fetch things for you is a major reason to have kids). She is so kind and helpful and sweet and full of cuddles I sort of dread the 3’s. And the 4’s. And everything between 10 and 21. Right now when she gets super mad at me she mostly cries and says “I need a huuuuuuuuuuug!” I imagine that won’t last forever, so I’m trying to appreciate it now, even when it happens 14 times a day.

She had a dentist appointment and her flu mist spray on the same day last week and handled both without any crying or running away or fighting. She understands the concept of “Do this now and then it’s over and we can go home and have a cuddle”, although stickers or ice cream make very effective bribes. Sometimes there is a little bedtime stalling – especially if she thinks we’re having fun without her – but sleeps through the night 99% of the time. She finally grew a little bit (I’ll get stats at her check-up in January), but she’s wearing actual 3T sizes in shirts and 2T in pants, although yesterday she wore a pair of 18 month snow pants.

Caroline loves princesses and pink and sparkly things. She also loves running and screaming and playing in the dirt and jumping in muddy puddles and throwing snowballs. Right now she has absolutely no sense of girl things vs boy things or “acting like a lady” and the first time I hear anyone try to explain it to her I will LOUDLY tell them they are wrong. I hope she makes all her own decisions about her likes and dislikes forever, be it wearing gowns to the grocery store or running around the house in boots, underpants and a pirate hat.

Her likes include talking, animals, repeating everything I’ve ever said, pink, cookies, helping, hugs, her brother, Daddy, the iPad, princesses, dress up, snow, sledding, drawing, eating, talking some more, Christmas, sleeping, balloons, school, jumping, running, even more talking, books, singing songs she made up, What Does The Fox Say?, quesadillas, the aquarium, talking to people she doesn’t know at the store, Santa, movies, her stuffed ducky, her stuffed doggy, and her stuffed kitty.

Dislikes include being really tired, being really hungry, when Mommy says no, when Daddy goes to work, wearing the appropriate amount of clothing for winter in Connecticut, and “when Blushes [our cat] gets angwy and goes ‘HAAAAAACH'”.

I did a birthday questionnaire for Evan in writing, but Caroline is better at answering questions (although sort of hard to understand on video) so I broke out the record function on my DSLR for the first time ever and asked her about her favorite things:

Happy 3rd birthday to my Christmas Girl, Caroline Noelle! You are amazing and I love you bunches and bunches forever.

Did lots of things. Am tired. Kids are tired. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Monday:

LOOK MY POPCORN CAUGHT FIRE. GET IT?

Trip #1 to the grocery store. We did buy cookies. We forgot a turkey.

Visiting their lobster friends. That’s what they call them. I don’t have the heart to explain those aren’t the same lobsters as last week.

Monday:

It was freezing on the pier but the sun (and all the happiness) warmed my cold heart.

My TV babysitter earned her paycheck this week.

Go buy this book. HILARIOUS.

Tuesday:

Real street fashion: scuffed boots and yoga pants.

Evan loves his Duplos and Caroline loves creepy naked dolls

I don’t know how she doesn’t have nightmares.

Wednesday:

RUN AND GET A TURKEY BEFORE THEY ARE GONE, SLACKER

They put extra ginger in the pumpkin pie <3

Making pies is exhausting.

Thursday:

It’s sparkling cider.

NO REALLY IT’S JUST CIDER I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE LEARNED THAT.

Thankful

Friday:

Instead of shopping, we visited our favorite places.

She met Santa.

Hot cocoa and a lollipop = best day ever

Watching the town tree lighting

Saturday:

They FINALLY built a playground at the zoo!

Those are yesterday’s lollipops they brought to the parade

Our local parade is adorable, if not very fancy.

Considering it was only 30 degrees all week, we spent a TON of time outside. My kids don’t care. They were born in New England*. Today Caroline took off her jacket and her hoodie and ran around in just a shirt.  But despite the temps we had a really great week.

Now I am throwing myself FULL FORCE into Caroline’s birthday party. Luckily “princess” isn’t the most original theme, so just grabbing pink or sparkly or sparkly pink stuff is pretty easy. I just need to get my house in order so I can start putting things up before I buy yet another princess tent and realize I don’t have anywhere to put FOUR of them. Tomorrow I’m going to let her pick out the ugliest, most ridiculous princess cake we can find to order from ShopRite. I’m so excited.

*This logic fails since I was born in Massachusetts and I’m freezing.

I have a pain in my right side that I don’t THINK is an internal organ exploding, but if it could be. What I’m saying is, if you don’t see me on Facebook or Instagram at all tomorrow, maybe text me?

Sunday:

Devil’s Hopyard – either it was named after the time the devil was seen jumping around in the pools at the bottom of the falls or after a landowner named Dobble who had a farm near there.

It’s very warm.

A two photo shoot kind of day

Monday:

He takes his Christmas gift list circling very seriously.

CUDDLE TIME

Tuesday:

MOMMY THERE’S A MAN IN THE TANK WITH THE FISHES

Aquarium date with some of our favorite people

Bacon, caramelized onions, tomato, blue cheese on sour dough. JEALOUS?

Wednesday:

I can’t remember WHY I put the kitchen stools in our bedroom but the gingers enjoy them.

Special Helper Day

I like pretending that is my house.

Thursday:

GOODNIGHT CAROLINE

We have a train table he never plays with at home. But the one at the library is THE BEST.

The cat found her spot on the new couch

Friday:

I think she has her princesses mixed up.

Showing off his art at my parent-teacher conference

My kids are weird.

Saturday:

They spent the full length of a movie like this. Unfortunately the movie was Equestria Girls.

TV, screaming toddler, Facebook…and I wonder why it takes me FOREVER to get things done.

Fall in a cookie – pumpkin, hazelnut spread, butterscotch chips. Unfortunately I don’t really like butterscotch and E doesn’t like pumpkin, so we can’t tell if these are actually delicious.

I secretly just want to sleep all day tomorrow, but we’re doing more fun stuff instead. Maybe I can sleep all day on the second of never. I’ve got a date with the elliptical trainer on Tuesday and that’s almost as good as napping. Especially because of the massage bed afterwards.