Haven Araya turned 3 years old yesterday!! September 26th! ♥
(Her hair is goofy looking because she took a shower in the morning and wanted me to partially blow dry it!)
I'm actually almost relieved that she's 3 now! For a whole year now I've gotten REPEATEDLY asked if she was 4 or 5 when she was still 2, lol! One older woman told me "I can't believe that she's only 2!!!! Back in my day, 2 year olds were still babies! Just look at her, she's not a baby at all! And she speaks and acts like a 5 year old! I just can't believe it!" :) Yep, that's Haven! She is grown up beyond her years! She just amazes me every day in her understanding of the world, the questions she asks, her empathy, her creativity, and her humor! I could not be more proud of her and the little (big) girl that she is becoming!
A few other random encounters with strangers:
A woman at a store asked me if Venily and Haven were twins. When I said no, she asked me which one was older!!!LOL! (they were sitting down)
And another day a few weeks ago Haven and I were buying potting soil and a woman kind of yelled at Haven (meanly I must add). "You are too big to be at the store during the day. Why aren't you in school right now?!". I was mad! I said "Actually she's still 2 and won't be 3 until next month and we are on our way to her preschool in a couple of minutes." That shut her right up, lol! :)
I'm actually almost relieved that she's 3 now! For a whole year now I've gotten REPEATEDLY asked if she was 4 or 5 when she was still 2, lol! One older woman told me "I can't believe that she's only 2!!!! Back in my day, 2 year olds were still babies! Just look at her, she's not a baby at all! And she speaks and acts like a 5 year old! I just can't believe it!" :) Yep, that's Haven! She is grown up beyond her years! She just amazes me every day in her understanding of the world, the questions she asks, her empathy, her creativity, and her humor! I could not be more proud of her and the little (big) girl that she is becoming!
A few other random encounters with strangers:
A woman at a store asked me if Venily and Haven were twins. When I said no, she asked me which one was older!!!LOL! (they were sitting down)
And another day a few weeks ago Haven and I were buying potting soil and a woman kind of yelled at Haven (meanly I must add). "You are too big to be at the store during the day. Why aren't you in school right now?!". I was mad! I said "Actually she's still 2 and won't be 3 until next month and we are on our way to her preschool in a couple of minutes." That shut her right up, lol! :)
On Her Birthday
We started the day off with 3 shaped pancakes. We then proceeded to do everything Haven wanted to do for the day which included playing "kitty" where she meows incessantly for a few hours (lol), playing waitress, and various other games and reading tons of books. She then made cupcakes, her Grandma came over, we sang "Happy Birthday" and we went in search of the one thing she told us she REALLY wanted to do on her birthday... pet a cat! Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. The cat kept running away. We will try again this weekend. We are also going to Old World Wisconsin for Haven's birthday this Saturday, so that will be a lot of fun too!! And her party with be next weekend!
SIZES
Clothes-
4/5 shirts and 4 in pants. I don't see her staying in 4's for long though. Some of them are getting hard to button and are getting short, lol!! She's actually tried on some 5 slim jeans and they fit her pretty good! We
haven't been able to shop in the baby/toddler section for a while now.
She's in the big girl section with Venily! :( Haven and her sister
actually have quite a few shirts and skirts that they can both wear,
lol!
(Last year when turning 2, she was in all 3T's, so at least she's only growing about a size a year, lol!)
(Last year when turning 2, she was in all 3T's, so at least she's only growing about a size a year, lol!)
Shoes- Size 10 (one year ago when turning 2, she was in a size 8)
Underwear-
size 4 (which is the same size she wore a year ago! My girls have
little booties b/c Venily is still in a size 4 for underwear too, lol!)
Weight- 34.4 lbs
Height- About 40.5 inches. She'll get measured next week at her well check though for "official" measurements!
Weight- 34.4 lbs
Height- About 40.5 inches. She'll get measured next week at her well check though for "official" measurements!
Hair length-
FINALLY getting some length! I measured it on her birthday and the longest strands were 9.5 inches!! It's actually really long when it's not
so curly. I love her curls though! We are still battling some gross...
what am I supposed to call it now?! Preschool-cradle cap?!
Where she gets large, hard, scabby looking patches of skin on her scalp
that usually pull up her hair when they fall out and leave her hair
falling out in clumps. :( We need to put oil on her head often to
soften the chunks and she uses medicated anti-dandruff shampoo! It is under control at the moment, but comes back whenever I switch her shampoo again!
Eating- This girl can definitely eat! It is not unusual for her to eat 3-4 breakfasts in the morning and very soon be hungry for a snack, lol! I hear this a lot: "Mommy, I ate all of my cereal, can I have blueberry pancakes.... Mommy I ate all of my blueberry pancakes, can I have yogurt... Mommy, I ate all of my yogurt, can I have a piece of zuchinni bread?" (It never ends!) She is ALWAYS hungry, lol. Luckily, she is a good eater and eats a lot of fruits and vegetables and healthy foods! Her absolute favorite thing is tomatoes. She will eat 25 cherry tomatoes in a sitting and still be begging for more!
Playing: Her favorite thing right now is her trampoline. The girls play on it every single day! She also really likes dress-up, pretend food, stuffed animal kittens, little people and Barbies (she will play with them all by herself for hours, lol). When her and her sister play, they ALWAYS put on some kind of Southern accents. I don't know why or how they learned how to do it, but they always do! I have tried numerous times to get them to do it on camera, but they won't... I really need to sneak up on them while they're playing to capture it, haha!
Books: This girl loves her books! (Like all the women in the Young house!). We go to the library 3-4 times a week and she's always getting more and more books! :) She knows right where the "Mercer Mayers" are and the Dora books. Both are current favorites. She also likes a wide variety of books we have at home as well!
School and Learning: She knows almost all of her letters, what sounds they make and several words that start with each letter. She's always telling me "Mommy I want something that starts with a "b", guess what it is?" (and I'll guess and guess) before she finally tell me what it is. "Bread!" :) She does this with everything, lol. She counts now to 39 by herself and higher with help.
Today at preschool (Jason took her alone for the 1st time since I had to sub). And her teacher said she had a MAJOR break through today!! ♥ No crying and she was playing and talking to a lot of different kids in the class (not just the teacher). Her teacher was also going over letters with a child and Haven stood back and watched. The teacher said she could see her from a distance listening and saying the letters and sounds the letters made so when she was done with that kid, she asked Haven if she wanted to try. Her teacher was really impressed!!! She told Jason that Haven is intellectually way ahead of all of the other kids in her class (this is a mixed age level class where Haven is the youngest) but that socially she is behind. So it's really great that she is breaking out of her shell at school and getting better at the social stuff! I still can't understand how my most outgoing child at 2 turned out to be my shyest at school and my shyest at 2 turned out to be my most outgoing at school, lol! Not to mention that Haven has been going to storytime, playdates, Music & Me classes, etc. since she was a week old!! Oh well, all the more reason I'm so glad that I have her in preschool right now!! :)
Here is an interview I took with her on her 3rd birthday!! :)
Nicknames- "Havs" is still what I call her the most besides Haven. That and "Havs, Aravs, Aravs, Aravs" :)
Sleep- Goes to bed at
8pm and wakes up at around 7am. Naps are pretty much nonexistent now. Every once in a while she'll fall asleep in the car for a bit, but no more regular naps.
She usually likes to sleep with at least one stuffed animal and 1-2
books.Eating- This girl can definitely eat! It is not unusual for her to eat 3-4 breakfasts in the morning and very soon be hungry for a snack, lol! I hear this a lot: "Mommy, I ate all of my cereal, can I have blueberry pancakes.... Mommy I ate all of my blueberry pancakes, can I have yogurt... Mommy, I ate all of my yogurt, can I have a piece of zuchinni bread?" (It never ends!) She is ALWAYS hungry, lol. Luckily, she is a good eater and eats a lot of fruits and vegetables and healthy foods! Her absolute favorite thing is tomatoes. She will eat 25 cherry tomatoes in a sitting and still be begging for more!
Playing: Her favorite thing right now is her trampoline. The girls play on it every single day! She also really likes dress-up, pretend food, stuffed animal kittens, little people and Barbies (she will play with them all by herself for hours, lol). When her and her sister play, they ALWAYS put on some kind of Southern accents. I don't know why or how they learned how to do it, but they always do! I have tried numerous times to get them to do it on camera, but they won't... I really need to sneak up on them while they're playing to capture it, haha!
Books: This girl loves her books! (Like all the women in the Young house!). We go to the library 3-4 times a week and she's always getting more and more books! :) She knows right where the "Mercer Mayers" are and the Dora books. Both are current favorites. She also likes a wide variety of books we have at home as well!
School and Learning: She knows almost all of her letters, what sounds they make and several words that start with each letter. She's always telling me "Mommy I want something that starts with a "b", guess what it is?" (and I'll guess and guess) before she finally tell me what it is. "Bread!" :) She does this with everything, lol. She counts now to 39 by herself and higher with help.
Today at preschool (Jason took her alone for the 1st time since I had to sub). And her teacher said she had a MAJOR break through today!! ♥ No crying and she was playing and talking to a lot of different kids in the class (not just the teacher). Her teacher was also going over letters with a child and Haven stood back and watched. The teacher said she could see her from a distance listening and saying the letters and sounds the letters made so when she was done with that kid, she asked Haven if she wanted to try. Her teacher was really impressed!!! She told Jason that Haven is intellectually way ahead of all of the other kids in her class (this is a mixed age level class where Haven is the youngest) but that socially she is behind. So it's really great that she is breaking out of her shell at school and getting better at the social stuff! I still can't understand how my most outgoing child at 2 turned out to be my shyest at school and my shyest at 2 turned out to be my most outgoing at school, lol! Not to mention that Haven has been going to storytime, playdates, Music & Me classes, etc. since she was a week old!! Oh well, all the more reason I'm so glad that I have her in preschool right now!! :)
Here is an interview I took with her on her 3rd birthday!! :)
