The Doehne Family: Happy 3rd!

My baby is getting older - officially three years old today. She is social, adventurous, athletic, funny, tough and at times, stubborn. As with most three year olds, she has a unique way of seeing the world and it often makes us smile to hear her try to convey this view. If we are out and about and she sees something that she likes, she says "I want that at my home". She calls hand dryers in restrooms "microwaves" and the cup holder in her car seat a "cup folder". She associates darkness (night time) with sadness and daytime with happiness. Natalie refers to Tangled as Rapunzel and Rapunzel as "let down your hair". When given two choices, she never says no to one option but instead says "we can do that one tomorrow, OK?" And "I do it myself" is something we hear often these days.

Natalie also has a great imagination. She has an imaginary friend named Popcorn and often tells us tales of their crazy adventures together. One of my favorite things is when she says "remember at Disneyland when..."(and she will explain in great detail one of the memories she overheard us talk about from our last trip). Everyone gets a kick out of it because she stayed at home with Grandma during this trip and has never been to Disneyland.

Nattie loves her "lovie" (the zebra she has had since a newborn), likes to color (just learned the names of colors), sing "Wheels on the Bus", do "homework" (which is one of her Pre-K workbooks), carry a backpack and do puzzles. She is quite the fashionista - often changes outfits multiple times per day because her "pants aren't beautiful" and has been known to throw a huge tantrum if you ask her to wear a pair of shoes that she doesn't like that day. Natalie would eat a cheese quesadilla for every meal if I let her. She doesn't mind getting her hair done in the morning and is not a big fan of potty training yet (hoping this will change in the next few months - fingers crossed).

Nattie spends about half of her life in the car, being shuffled to and from kid's activities, which is probably why she can sing most top 40 pop songs. She will often ask me to change the radio

station when a song starts playing which is sung by a boy. She only wants to listen to songs sung by a girl.

According to her, her favorite color is orange, favorite tv show is Umizoomi and favorite movie is Frozen. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she will say a pig.

Here is Natalie's third birthday in pictures.