It’s hard to believe that this kiddo will be three in just a couple of months. Our baby! She still insists that she’s a baby of course, and has to get in those cuddles and glee from being called our little one though! I totally don’t mind it and soak up all the affection she has to give. It’s crazy thinking about how Iris might be our last child, and while most days we’re okay with this, it’s still quite difficult to watch your final kid grow. There’s joy and a mesmerizing beauty to it, but at the same time, the worst type of heartbreak. If only we could keep them young for just a little bit longer… But then I bounce out of my little funk when I hear her communicating with me and sharing her delightful ideas. She’s such a positive, creative, happy little girl, my Iris Celeste.
She follows in Juliet’s footsteps a whole bunch. Whatever big sister does, she wants to do too. Juliet’s always obsessed over monsters, zombies, ninja turtles, and grand adventures of any sort. Iris has been on the more timid side, adoring princesses, fairy tales, and mothering her dolls… But now it’s not uncommon to see her showing interest in all the things her sister likes, and sometimes she might be a little afraid of the monster pretend play that Juliet comes up with, but she always does stick around! It’s very heartwarming to see just how much they admire each other. They even insist on sleeping in the same best every night, cuddled up to one another and sleeping as blissfully as possible.
They also fight too. Don’t get me wrong there. They scream at each other to give back toys, Juliet bosses her around to play something else, Iris pushes her away so she can play on her own, etc. But they can’t stay mad at each other. What amazes me most is how often they resolve these issues on their own, most times without needing any intervention from Jon or myself.
Iris got to experience what I believe to be her first memorable snowfall this year. A couple weeks ago we got about an inch of snow. Both of the kids ran down and bolted towards the patio door where all white showed. They could not eat breakfast fast enough to get to go out and play and boy did they love it! They were crestfallen knowing there wasn’t enough snow to make a snowman, but Iris found a frozen ice chunk shaped like a mermaid from one of her sand toys and proceeded to carry it around with the best type of joy. It was magical to her and I love how much she loved it. Mostly they just ran around giggling and playing tag. I am so glad we now have a better yard for them to play in. Our yard before was pretty crappy, especially for winter, so this year I can’t wait for more snow to come. They already have big plans to build Frosty the Snowman and they believe that one of the hats I made will be quite magical for him.
Iris also had her first memorable experience with Santa Claus. We found a really great Santa here and took the kids. Iris was determined to do what Juliet was going to do. Sit on his lap and tell him exactly what she wanted for Christmas… A princess tent. I had a feeling she would be too shy, but I encouraged her and told her it was okay if she didn’t, that her sister would help her out (Juliet’s a huge chatterbox!). She was determined though! Right up until she was face to face with the big man himself… She froze up and her picture was priceless. She was like a deer in headlights. Luckily Juliet took over and chatted his ear off and made it a point to let him know what she wanted and Iris was quite happy with that. For the rest of the day she talked all about how great her Santa visit was and it was as if no shyness had ever occurred!
The kids are SO excited for the holidays. They are so excited about seeing family and friends and hosting the big Christmas eve party here this year. Iris, we suspect, by our calculations, will entirely take over Christmas baking by age 7. She’s so involved with that sort of stuff and it brings her so much delight! I think what she looks forward to the most this year, however, is what her sister looks most forward to, as well as us… Not presents, not the tasty treats… Not the party and not the snow. All of those are exciting, yes… But most of all they look forward to our friend Felipe coming to stay with us for a month straight. I was showing Iris pictures of him with her as a baby and with her sister also talking her ear off about how great he is, she simply can’t wait to get to know him. She counts down the days until his visit every day with her sister and today she couldn’t wait to get started on cleaning up his room with me and Jon. In fact, she went to bed knowing we’d be doing it and woke up fully prepared and eager before all of us. It’s a very exciting time for her. She gets to get to know a new uncle and experience so many new things with the holidays in this new home of ours. What’s most awesome is knowing that this will be the first one she has memory of most likely, as I always think back to this being about the age where I had my first holiday memories.
It’s an exciting time and not much more can be said other than that
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Source:
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