It’s been a minute since I updated you on Vivienne. My sweet sweet silly “big girl” Vivienne. I say “big girl” because that’s all she wants to be called now. She is NOT a little girl and I need to make that clear. She is now over 3 years old. 3 years and 4 months to be exact and although 3 year olds have their major challenges, meltdowns, and strong opinions… I do LOVE this age. I love it because she is at the age where we can sit down and have a conversation and she always amazes me at what she says, understands, and acts on. I’m trying to embrace every stage and look at the positive and remind myself that any negatives are just a phase.

Our last big milestone I wrote about was potty training, which was our hardest transition yet. After potty training, I was convinced every big stage was going to be difficult. Luckily, I was proven wrong.

POTTY TRAINING UPDATE:

Vivienne has been potty trained for a while now (started April 2019) and she has had very few accidents as of late. People make it seem like potty training is a 3 day simple task, but for most kids, it’s a longer journey. For plane and long car rides, we put Vivienne back in a diaper so we can stop less and less likely for accidents incase we aren’t able to get to a bathroom in time. She does have moments of holding it too long and then needing to go ASAP, but overall, she is doing great. We do still give her a diaper during her nap and bedtime (due to still having a bottle before bed and she’s not quite ready for bedtime potty training).

OK, let’s be real for a minute. My 3 year old still requests a “baba” aka sippy cup of warm milk before her nap and bedtime. It is what it is and I honestly pick my battles. It’s interesting to see the difference between the first born and second, as Alice now goes to sleep with no help and Vivienne needs ALL the things. Vivienne never took a pacifier, so I suppose she needs something to soothe? Our pediatrician and dentist just suggest to make sure we are brushing her teeth and giving her water after, which she always has in her bed.

PRESCHOOL UPDATE:

Vivienne LOVES preschool. From the very start, she was the one to kiss us goodbye and walk without turning back. I was shocked as she had never been to daycare or away from us before then- it was a real proud parent moment. Of course, she has her days… but overall, she LOVES her teachers, classmates, and school. I can’t believe we are registering her for mini 4’s this year (starting August) and she will be attending MWF instead of Tuesday/Thursdays.

BIG GIRL BED:

This was a transition that I was most nervous for as Vivienne was a tough one to get to bed most nights. It took a lot of soothing, convincing, and toys to keep her wanting to just be in her crib and go to sleep. So, I thought like potty training, it would be really difficult. We kept her in her crib for as long as we could, but eventually… by about 3 years old, she started to climb out. We had one night of coming into our room at 12am, but with the help of the hatch night light, she stayed in her crib until 7am. We were going to get her a big girl bed, but then decided to update her room a little more, which is taking longer than we hoped. About a month ago, we decided to just change her bed to the conversion railing, and she basically thinks she has a big girl bed now. The transition was SO smooth and I think her being 3, understanding the night light, and just being so excited to be a big girl in a big girl bed, we haven’t had one night where she walks out of her crib or the need to lock her in.

DISCIPLINE:

I’ve been reading, How to Raise Successful People and Love and Logic for Early Childhood (I recommend purchasing a used copy as new is very expensive for some reason). The topic is very difficult and changes daily based on behavior and my mood, but I try hard to keep my cool. I just think its really important to educate yourself on the growing brain of toddlers and be on the same page as your spouse. Something we are still working on TBH. We do “breaks” and try to talk things out with Vivienne. I plan to read Love and Logic and share more details with you. In the meantime, feel free to watch my YouTube video that I did with Chelsea Kunde of Building Blocks Family. It’s a long video, but so informative, and easy-going… having an open ended conversation about Discipline.

NAP TIME:

Vivienne takes one nap, around 1pm to 3-3:30pm and goes to bed at 8pm, waking up at 7am. Vivienne does wear a diaper still during her nap and bedtime.

GETTING ALONG WITH SISSY:

Like all siblings, they have moments of love/friendship and moments of not sharing/wanting to be in the same space. We try to work with them when they are having a tough time with this, but overall they miss each other when they are gone and love laughing at each other. Yet, they def have moments of “she’s bugging me” and “I want her toy.”

I love watching them together and I know their bond will be so big.

FAVORITE TOYS:

All the “barbie” dolls, anything Frozen, makeup, and she loves her pony cycle.

FAVORITE FOOD:

Salmon Pesto Orzo of course, PB&J, ketchup, soup, tofu stir fry, sushi (raw salmon and tuna). She’s my more picky eater but still eats pretty decent.

CURSING:

Someone asked me about bad behavior and if Vivienne ever curses. She doesn’t. The only bad word she knows is stupid and she will say, “I can’t say stupid” just to say it. But, we really try hard to keep swear words out of our mouth around the kids. They haven’t caught on to any “whoopsies” yet, thank goodness. Stupid is the worst one she has said and I blame kid movies for that one. Can we all write a letter to Disney on some of the words they choose to use?

MILESTONES:

Milestones are a little harder to grasp once they can really carry a conversation with you… its harder to pick up. She is VERY brave, loves preschool, art, and dancing!

PERSONALITY:

Silly, Silly, Silly girl. I absolutely love to see what a big personality this girl has. She is so funny, goofy, kind, brave, and so so smart. She’s the kind of person who gets hit by her little sissy and she just looks stunned at her… the sweetest soul, yet, still has quite the opinion. She LOVES dancing, singing, and reading books.

I hope I answered them all for you! xo!