Caroline at 3 years old

Well, now that Caroline's third birthday was almost a month ago and today is actually Eric's special "life day" (sorry, a Korean ism that I doubt any of you will get) and I ought to be dedicating a post to him... since I haven't composed one yet and this one was just begging to be published in its raw and unedited state, well, this is what I'm posting today! So, for our family history efforts, I present Caroline's 3rd year isms!

favorite foods are bacon and berries. favorite drink is milk (she gets mad when we give her water at dinner but she'll drink it anyway). favorite time of day is her 'zen' time of laying on the floor drinking and pulling all the barrettes and rubberbands out of her hair with glossed over eyes. Favorite color is yellow. favorite shows are Team Umi-zoomi, Super Why, and Leapfrog. Favorite books are Pete the Cat and Going on a Bear Hunt. Favorite toys are Magna-Tiles, stretchy dinosaurs ("compies"), cars, mini princesses, and her Noah's ark boat. Favorite person: definitely Daddy. :) Or Grandpa (either of them). Or any Uncle. And randomly, Brother Bair in our ward whom she identifies on the stand weekly, points, and waves like crazy to try to get his attention. Sadly, they just moved out of our ward. Caroline doesn't know yet. She's going to be devastated. :) She basically still just loves men more than women. :)

 "you SILL-LAY pot!" (her response to 'you stinker pot')

"critter bed" = her crib, which she is sad to not be able to use because it is 'broken' (mattress removed) to help her use her "Princess bed"

"ril-lay, rill-lay tired. I go bed now."

"tickle fast?...TICKLE!!!" (while insistently waving her arm or bare belly at you)

"I got i-trouble"

"en-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh..." (her slight stutter when she can't think of what to say)

"not THAT one! I go nover one!" (meaning, she wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed)

"where my Gwen?" or "where my Daddy?"

names her poops members of the family. Uncle Bryce is the only extended family ever to receive the honor.

named the Elk taxidermy on the wall "Sven"

sings a choreographed version of "Let it Go" from Frozen

plays with her food-- it becomes cars and boats or families quite often

can sometimes be persuaded to consume more bites because they are "sad and want to go to the party" and she'll say "alright, you can!"

"ah co-wease!" (of course)

"WHAT!?!!!" in a growly voice. Her favorite joke. 

"soap!...Candy soap!" another favorite joke of her own invention. 

She likes to invent words from her own language and laugh when we repeat them back to her

"I ready get u-up!" between 5 and 5:30 in the morning while she knocks on her door (we put a child proof knob on her side and removed her light bulbs to try to encourage her to go back to bed, but she basically just squalls at the door until we get her out.)

"I pretty princess". twirling and primping in her pjs. 

"Chase me!" not a request. 

"my daddy! my daddy! My daddy HOME!!!" 

"go up high?!?"... and she contorts herself while being thrown up so that she comes down in different positions. Sort of like a prelude to a flip...

just about every day she states that she is ready to get on an airplane to go visit grandma and grandpa and sleep at their house. She even packs 'bags' and will go fetch her shoes so she is ready to go. She bawls when we tell her we are not leaving for a visit to them for another month. And she's been doing this for the past 2 months. 

LOVES to terrorize Gwen: hang on her, pull on her clothes, tackle her, sit on her, push her down and wrestle her, etc. Sometimes she still bites and pulls hair, but she gets in pretty big trouble for those ones. Basically, she just adores her sister to the point of abuse!
 

She loves to jump, particularly on the yellow chair. 

She says "tada!" and wants much praise for climbing or building things... and I should mention that she LOVES to climb, is not at all intimidated by height or challenge, and often figures out how to get up places before Gwen does.

"I did it! I so big!"
Caroline loves to build castles and towers. Her creativity is rather impressive, as her building designs are quite varied and interesting. She becomes extremely frustrated if it crashes down before completion, if she can't find the right piece for a specific spot, or if a friend dares to try to 'help' her with her creation. She is definitely a lone wolf and possessive of her creative autonomy!

She identifies places she has been on sight as we drive past: "PLANET PLACE!" (the mall playground), "plant place" (Straeder's Garden Center), "paint place" (Home Depot, where she gets to do a project with Daddy once a month), "playground with the bumpy slide" (Carriage Place park), "playground with the head" (Leatherlips park), and of course Aldi, Meijer, the library, Gwen's school, the zoo, and church. 

she loves to water herself with the hose, even on chilly/windy days.
She LOVES to "nuggle" (snuggle) and insists upon you running your fingers on her back and limbs throughout the nuggle time.

We love our little independent imp! Our family would be missing a big personality without her craziness and her unbridled affection!