Jonny Ruth Turns 3!

Poor Jonny, her birthday has been pretty overlooked the last two years.  She's much too little to have a party with friends and we're far away from family so we don't get to have them over.  Plus her birthday is less than two weeks before Christmas.  I really love to and so try to make birthdays special,  But hers is hard.  Hopefully as she gets a little older she'll have ideas of what she might want to do to mark the day.  This year we took her to breakfast because Dan wanted to try a place out.  She and I went and got her some balloons (which honestly I think was her favorite part) and then I made her some cupcakes that we pigged out on that night.  But again, I didn't even make the cake or frosting or anything.  It came from a box/can.  And they weren't any kind of fancy cupcakes or anything.  It was still a great day and she was so happy.

A birthday interview.  She is not as patient with me in such things as Atticus.

Last year she got a Minnie Mouse balloon on her birthday and so when asked this year what she wanted for her birthday, she only would answer that she wanted Minnie Mouse because she was remembering her balloon.  So Minnie Mouse is what she got.

Spent a good part of her day lazing around with a pile of books.  One of her most favorite things to do.

She could not be talked out of these football cupcake liners.  Even with all the other bright and cute cupcake liners.

This is as fancy as her cake got this year.  She was too pleased with her balloons to care.

Cupcake in one hand, ice cream cone in the other.  Pretty good evening, I'd say.

These aren't actually from her birthday but they're too cute so I'm throwing them in.

Jonny's Third Year

My baby is three and my heart is a bit broken.  She's entirely too big and full of personality.  Stinkerish and sweet.  And there are far too many perfect pictures of her that I couldn't resist posting.

Oh!  And a whole bunch of stuff about her that I love!  (Quite possibly the longest rambling blog to ever be.)

She has actually grown since last year.  She weighs 26 pounds which puts her in the 6th percentile.  And she was a hair taller than 3 feet and was in the 38th percentile.

Three years old!  
And oh my did these pictures take a lot of effort (on three different days...)

She finally started talking after her second birthday.  At her two-year well-check the doctor and I had even talked about getting her into some early intervention because she was talking so little.  Though I knew very well that she was just not talking because she didn't feel like it.  And only a week later, because she was surrounded by cousins at Christmas she realized she had to speak for herself and had more than doubled her words by the time we left.  And now, she won't stop talking.  She talks, and talks, and talks.  To whomever will listen.  I don't know how she gets any breaths in.

She so very clearly understands binkies and how they work.  And those are her two babies, Elvira and Avery.

She drew a picture to send to grandpa.  She's coming around to like and talk about Grandma just as much now, but good grief this girl adores her grandpa.

Checking my vitals

Some of her Jonny words and phrases:
-"do-do-do" for scary things
-She calls it "sunny day" or "dark night"
-"Eeshee" meant like, seven things for a while there depending on context.  Most often it was when she was directing our attention to something and it meant "right here".
-She says "whoopies" or "silly me" when she drops something or forgets something etc.
-"She excitely exclaims "no way!" when something is awesome.
-She always comments on how bubiful (beautiful) everything is.
-"Nah-no" (I was sad when she finally started saying "I don't know" instead of this one.)
-She says t for c sounds and d in place of g sounds.  So a cookie is a "tootie" (not to be confused with a tootie-toot) and telling me she is good girl becomes "dood dirl"
-She drags her blanket everywhere and calls it "Petey".  I hope it always remains its name.
-Another one I won't let go (though she also calls him by his actual name now, too) is she calls Atticus, Yeah-Yeah.

See her party hair in the back?  She's got the most impossible cowlick back there.  Pretty much all the hair on the back top of her head grows in every direction but down.  It causes crazy tangles and will drive her crazy when she gets older.

 She loves yellow.  It is "her best".  And at the beginning of the year when she was still barely talking, she'd exclaim "mine yellow!" whenever she saw it.

She's obsessed with Moana.  Starting in March she started going by Moana and only by Moana.  If we didn't call her Moana she was quick to correct us.  At first it was if she was wearing a dress she was Moana and she'd cry when she had to change because then she was Jonny Ruth again.  But then it was anytime she was dressed she was Moana and if not she was Jonny again.  (Weird much?)  This lasted until October or so, and she still frequently is Moana.  Everything else in life is Moana as well.  Her imaginary friends are Moana and Maui.  If I ask her what she's thinking about, the answer is Moana.  Every bedtime lullaby I sing to her is Moana and she's singing it every other minute of the day. (Especially if she sees any body of water, including puddles).  She either wants her hair in a ponytail, or she wants "long hair like Moana does".  She also often refers to Attiicus as Tomatoa, Dan as Maui, and me as Te Fiti.  And throughout all of this, she still pronounces Moana "Uh-Mon-uh".  Lucky for her, my Aunt Mikki got her a Moana dress and my mom got her a singing Moana necklace.  (Which she wore the battery out on in less than a week.)

She saw this puddle, decided it was the ocean, went and put her costume on and came back out to sing.

Hanging out at Yeah-Yeah's soccer game.

She's great at making excuses.  If she doesn't want to eat she'll say she's too tired.  If she doesn't want to clean up, she'll say she's too little, if she doesn't want to nap, she'll say she's too big.  There's always something.

 She is shy for show.  I do believe there is some shyness in her, but mostly she does it to be cute and get attention.
A great example of her pretending to be shy when she realized I was watching her.

And a perfect example of how not shy she is.

She, like her brother, is the biggest ham.

 She announces all tunnels we go through with great enthusiasm.

Jonny loves wearing dresses.  Dresses are what Moana and other princesses wear.  So if she's not wearing a dress then she can't be a princess and then it's like the world has come to an end.

Second to dressing as a princess, she prefers nudity.  Not because she feels free, but because she thinks it's hilarious to show off her bum and dance about flaunting that she's "nakey".  We've talked many a time about how it is inappropriate to moon people, etc.  And yet she thinks she is funny.  She also loves potty talk.  If a potty-type word comes up with someone else, she will be quick to jump in with how that is "unappropriate" because she's been told that so often.  And she will excitedly ask if she can use such words while she's using the bathroom and then she will loudly repeat them the entire time she's in there.

(Oh and she also thinks wedgies are hilarious.  She'll even give herself one just so she can announce it.)  (And her bum is so perfectly squishy!)

This picture is in honor of her aunt, Samantha.

As a baby, I always knew she was ready to sleep when she'd shove her face into me and get it as squished as possible.  As she's gotten older, she has turned to sleeping with a blanket over her face.  That squishy habit has also made her an amazing cuddler.

She is often seen walking around with her hands on her hips or waving them in the air as she walks, as though she were pantomiming a rainbow.

She likes to get married to us by dancing with us.  Because twirling around with someone is how weddings go.  Clearly.

Jonny LOVES the beach.  And being a turd.

Jonny hates the Red Sox and she'll be quick to let you know that she hates them and loves the Yankees if it comes up.  It's very fun when we're out in public.  The Bostonians that overhear usually find it amusing

She's very sweet.  She always thanks me for everything and is quick to say sorry when she makes a mistake.  She's also pretty naughty and a horrible listener (and so cute it's hard to punish her) so she gets in trouble a lot.  But the worst a part of that for her is that she hates having me mad at her.  After she's been in trouble the first thing she'll ask is if I'm still mad at her.  And when I tell her no, she will quickly be happy again and not really care about whatever she got in trouble for.  It's a nice (maybe mean) go-to for me though when she's done something naughty but doesn't care, because I can state I'm mad at her and she will immediately pay attention to the fact that something is wrong.

Her prayer always goes exactly like this: "Hev Father, grandpa, Nana Nae, bee.  Thank you mama, daddy, Yeah-Yeah.  Amen Jesus amen Jesus amen".  Grandpa is my dad, Nana Nae is Dan's mom, Bee is her aunt Sheri, and Yeah-Yeah is Atticus.

Loving on her Grandpa.

She makes up random songs about whatever she's doing.

She is clearly on the path to be a fashion icon.

Sprayed and combed her own hair.

She is sooo girly.  She always wants to have her hair done just so and wear dresses.  She's discovered that lipstick is a thing and is always begging to wear "pink chapstick"  She's also very into gender roles and I have no idea where she gets it from.  She tells me when things are girl things or boy things.  She always makes sure that I have taken her into the girl bathroom.  She tells me only girls can be "bubiful"  (beautiful) and that boys can't have "pee-no-tay-dles" (ponytails) etc.

She can be perfectly happy to just laze around with books for hours.

(She caught me peaking at her)

She can be a real stinker about cooperating for anything that isn't on her terms or her idea.  This is seen a lot in pictures like this one at Louisa May Alcott's house.

Jonny selfies!

With Atticus in school all day, we spend a lot of time together, perfecting our selfies.  She is struggling a bit to play without Atticus.  She does okay by herself but does often just follow me around like a puppy, getting underfoot and refusing to do anything but lay around wherever I might be.  She really struggles when it comes to playing with other kids, at the park or wherever, without Atticus there to tell her what to do.

Waiting for Atticus to get out of school.  Atticus' teachers love watching when we come to get him.  We pick him up from his class' spot in the gym and the two of them always run to each other for a hug.

In her Tiana dress.  It's actually a Tinker Bell dress, but Jonny has no idea who that is and she loves Tiana, so naturally this is her Tiana dress.

She hates the snow.  As long as we don't make her walk through it or touch it, she's pretty cool with it, though.