Paige at age 3 + a birthday party

Paige, oh Paige. We've joked around saying that we finally had to start parenting (Ellie was so easy) because she challenges us and pushes the boundaries quite frequently. We are always learning to have more patience and tough love with her. Life wouldn't be as silly, entertaining, and loving without her though and she melts our hearts all the time.
Here are some special highlights of our littlest big 3-year-old girl (up until her birthday on June 3rd)...

- Picks pants, a long sleeve shirt and socks out basically every day, even on our warm spring days
- Asks 'why?' constantly
- Started biting her fingernails (we started using nail polish that deters nail-biting, which has been working!)
- Wakes around 7am every morning, takes about an hour and a half nap (falling asleep within a few minutes) every day around 12:40pm, bedtime around 7:30pm (takes her about a half-hour to fall asleep), and still sleeps through the night
- Just started sleeping with a stuffed animal, a Panda named Pandy (a birthday present from Ellie)
- Transitioned to a big girl bed on her birthday and has done really really well (insert praise hands)!
- Smothers our faces with kisses when she wakes from a nap
- Loves cuddles on the couch/being held right after nap
- Counts to 10, but misses number 5 often
- Knows all her colors
- Has to hold the book we're reading before nap/bedtime, gets upset if you want to hold it
- Asks so many questions about the pictures in books
- Carries books all over the house; she loves books
- Takes a good 30-45 minutes to eat a meal
- Eats/tries food well
- Coming out of her shell around new people
- Enjoys doing any school work/projects
- Copies pretty much everything her big sister does
- Is excited about her strider bike, but gets distracted easily on bike rides, so it's short-lived
- Says "I love you o (so) much" and/or "I love you all day" several times in one day
- Scared of dogs, of any size
- Wants to do a lot of things herself, with no help from any of us
- Her first freckle turned up on the inner left side of her index finger, on her right hand (we think it's food or marker residue all the time)
- Favors Frozen movies over all others
- Wants to be sung Frozen songs at bedtime
- Started praying a whole prayer on her own at mealtimes and it's so sweet
- Her belly laugh is such a delight to our ears

We were able to have a little party for her on her actual birthday, June 3rd! I picked the lemon theme because it seemed to suit her; sour and sweet! It was outside in our backyard with some dear friends. The girls were SO excited to have people over since we hadn't had anyone over since Coronavirus/quarantine happened. When someone said "Happy birthday Paige!" her reply would be "Happy birthday!" She was brave and blew all her candles out herself and there were many giggles that evening. It was a special day!

^ Cookies made by my bestie Shaina!

^ Enjoying the ice cream cake!