Oh, Cassidy!

My Cassidy. Three is such a fun/interesting/difficult/awesome age. Does that make any sense? Our girl has always been independent, always had a strong mind of her own. But pair that with the sudden smarts of the age of three and what do you have? A brilliant, bright, challenging, masterful kid. Though we have our frustrations with the "terrible threes" we're also having more fun and certainly laughing more at the things she says.

One of my favorites was a few days ago. We were gazing out the front windows after a fresh snowfall. Someone, likely the mailman, had walked by our house probably minutes before, leaving his footprints in the snow. Cassidy saw them and exclaimed, "Yook, Mommy! Snowman 'footpince'!"

Tears can spring up quickly when things aren't going the way of a three year-old. When I remind her to calm down and talk to me, she stops the tears and wipes them from her eyes, then asks for a kleenex to "get the rain off her hands". :)

And oh, the excuses. Almost everything we ask her to do lately is answered with, "No, I can't!" (you must say this very dramatically and even with a slight British accent) and then followed with one of her many excuses. She keeps a variety of these in her back pocket to pull out at a moment's notice. It doesn't matter what she's trying to get out of; the excuse doesn't have to match the request. She just throws one in after "I can't" for good measure. These excuses include: "It's too heavy!", "It's broken!", "My feet are dirty!", "I can't reach it!", "My tummy hurts", and my personal favorite: "My hands are too pruney!" (if she's had a bath within a few hours). Oh, Cassidy.

But as much as she tries to get out of pretty much everything we ask her to do, she's also a very generous, giving girl. Everyone seems to notice this and comment on how well she shares toys, offers kids and adults her things when they come into our house, how kindly she greets her friends and says with a smile, "Hi! Come in!". She even shares well with her brother (who hasn't quite learned this art yet!), even when he literally sits on her to get the toy she's playing with. She's always the first to ask, "You okay, Travis?" when he clunks or takes a spill. (She finally says "Travis" perfectly...he's no longer "Twass", "Transis" or "Trebis".)

She listens to me and a lot of what she says I recognize from my own common chatter. (Yes, I admit it. It was me from whom she got "Oh crap!" a while back. I was in denial at first but hearing her say that repeatedly actually cured me of saying it too!) Now I her her say, "Oh my goodness!" and I don't cringe at my verbal influence. It's pretty cute. :)

I relish these days with my three year old girl. She used to not be so affectionate with me. As soon as she could walk, she was too busy to snuggle with me and wasn't generous with hugs and kisses. She didn't want to be rocked at bedtime. I longed for that closeness with her. But now she's very quick to hug and kiss me. She prefers to sit snuggled right up into me if not right on top of me. And her favorite thing to do is lay in my "big girl bed" with me, snuggled in tight, and ask me to rub her tummy and back. We love to rub noses, brush our cheeks against each other, give Eskimo kisses with our eyelashes. What a joy she is, and a blessing.

Here's the Pumpkin with her two constant companions: "Dightning The Queen" (Lightning McQueen) and "Trawberry Porchcake" (Strawberry Shortcake):She was running by me but I still caught a smile! Gotcha, Cassidy!