Little Man

Who definitely loves the camera.

Bluest of blue eyes.

Smile always at the ready.

Preparing to crawl.
(Which he now does like a champ.)

Oop. Heard the camera. Must pose.

Seriously cute.

Friends

They are on their way to becoming best of friends!

As Russell is becoming more mobile Mae isn't super sure about sharing her stuff, but for the most part they really like each other.

A couple mornings a week we load up and go for a stroll. Russell loves to be outside and Mae loves to ride in the stroller.

They are both very camera happy.

I was taking pictures of Russell in the crawling position and Mae decided she needed in on that action also.

She was teaching him how to say, "Cheese!"

Twin hood-sters.

Three Years Old!

Mae is three years old.

I can hardly believe it.

I can't, for the life of me, remember her as a baby. Kind of. In that hazy, I'm-not-as-bad-of-a-parent-as-I-sound kind of way.

Bob and I were just talking today about how she doesn't gradually go through stages. One second she is at one stage and the next second she has moved on. Started crawling in July - walking the beginning on September. A three word vocabulary in August - full comprehensive sentences before Christmas.

Toddler yesterday. Big girl today.

Mae is a hoot. Funny. Naturally funny. She has a dry sense on humor and can make me laugh no matter what mood I'm in.

She is also very intuitive when it comes to feelings. No matter how hard I try to hide my feelings (usually anger or sadness) from her, she just knows. "Why're you sad, Mom?" "Are you angry?" She just knows.

She idolizes Etta and wants to annoy the heck out of her at the same time. Many times I have to separate them to different floors because Etta has lashed out at the annoyance and has made Mae cry. Mae's cries can turn instantly from wails of hurt to wails of, "But I want to play with Etta!!" Enough to make me pull my hair most days.

But they do play together...sometimes...and it is pretty adorable. One of Mae's favorite games is "Dad and Kid". Etta's the dad and Mae's the kid. Just a few weeks ago she always wanted to be the baby, but Etta kept saying it was nap time so then Mae changed to being the kid. She knows her stuff.

And boy does she love Russell. Or her "LeeLee" as she calls him. She wants to see him first thing every time he wakes up from a nap or she has been out and about with out him. She loves to play with him and make him giggle. She also likes to mount the walker behind him while he is cruising. Not my favorite game.

Mae is a true joy and a light in our lives.

She likes to be the center of attention. Until she is the center of attention.

She thought is was hilarious that we were singing to her. Just to HER!

She loves frosting. And candy. And pickles.

Getting close to being able to eat the cake - not share the cake. (Word World reference.)

Frosting face.

When I bake with the girls I make them pull their hair back. (Another reason why Etta is glad her hair is short now.) A pony tail just makes her look so much older for some reason. I wish that she would let me do it more.

Her stats at 3 years:

Weight: 29.5 lbs

Height: 36.75 inches

Etta at 3 years.