I thought about doing a combined birthday party for Shayla and Easton because I think Shayla is old enough to get it and enjoy it this year, but I just didn’t have the stamina to do all of the planning involved, so we had a quiet little celebration at home. We had been telling her that her birthday was coming up for quite some time, but that it was after my birthday. So the day after my birthday, so woke up and said (literally right when I woke her up), “Today’s my birthday!” I was so sad to tell her that she had to wait one more day for her birthday. All day long she kept asking when Daddy was going to come home so she could eat cake and open presents. The girl doesn’t really have a favorite dinner. Sometimes she really likes something, then the next day she won’t eat it. I tried to make something for dinner that I thought she would like (though I can’t remember now what it was). Whatever it was, we still had to fight her a bit to eat it. Thankfully we didn’t have to threaten to take away the cake (we couldn’t have done that to her on her birthday anyway). The nice part about having our birthdays close together is that David made a cake for me on Monday and we just kept the layers separate and had a “brand new” pre-cooked birthday cake for her.
She still didn’t really get the whole blowing out the candles thing. Well she did, but she was barely blowing, so I just had to blow at the same time to make her think that she blew it out.
Blowing 
Yay! I did it! 
Immediately licking the frosting off the candles 
This video of her is trying to blow out the candles
Presents are always the most exciting of course. She always loves opening them, even if she’s not quite sure what she got.
“Can I open up my presents yet?” 
She got more of the Disney princesses to go with the Little People Princess Castle, more dress up, Little People A to Z zoo (which was fun for her since we had just gone to the zoo a few days before), some more food for her kitchen, a cash register, and some Leap Frog books. She enjoyed the haul. It was hard to convince her to go to bed that night. 
On Sunday we had our birthday celebration with my family. My parents had gifts for her, and then I saved one gift for her to open there. I got her a doctor’s kit at the last minute because she loves watching the Doc McStuffin’s TV show. She was using her necklaces as a stethoscope, and she would get frustrated because she wanted me to put it on her, but I couldn’t clasp it (which meant that it would fall right off). Now she gives all of us at least one check-up a day (including her dolls). That is the first thing she wants to do when David walks in the door.
This was the best picture I could get of her holding the doctor’s kit. She could not figure out how to flip it over so we could actually see what it was. 
When I took her to the doctor for her 3 year check-up, she was excited. She willingly complied with everything that he asked her to do. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in the past, but the last few times we have been there for Easton, she will go right up to the doctor, and stand really close to him. One time she had her hand resting on his knee. She won’t really look at him or say anything. It’s the weirdest thing, because she isn’t like that with anyone else. He said other kids do that too, but it’s just really weird for her. Maybe he just has some sort of vibe.
Shayla is a very sweet little girl, with a very stubborn streak. She can be the best little helper when she wants to be. She likes to pick out plates, bowls, and spoons for her and Easton at meal time. She also helps me load the plates and silverware into the dishwasher. Some water spilled on the floor the other day and so she was grabbing all my clean rags out of the drawer to try and help clean it up. She loves to help me cook, but what that really means is that she loves to lick off all the measuring cups, spoons, beaters, rubber spatulas, the second that I put them down. It doesn’t matter whether I am done using them or not, and it really doesn’t matter how disgusting the individual ingredient might be (vanilla…no! no!). It’s a constant battle trying to keep certain things out of her mouth. It is funny how much she loves these things while we are cooking, but when it is all mixed up as a meal, then suddenly it’s very yucky and gross.
I still haven’t really figured out how to get her to help clean up toys. Cleaning up toys to her means that you start playing with them.
I asked her the other day what her favorite food was (to see if she really even had any idea). She told me it was soup with cheese and sour cream. The latter two items are the important part. Cheese and sour cream. She loves toppings, she loves dips: hummus, ranch, salsa. It doesn’t even matter how hot it is. She doesn’t like onions. If the meal has onions in it, then she refuses to eat it (which is just about everything in this house). She can tell as soon as it hits her mouth. I’ve gotten to where I puree them so that most of the time they are too small to be seen. She loves just about any breakfast food: pancakes, muffins, scrambled eggs, oatmeal. She loves yogurt with nuts in it for lunch. You really just never know with dinner.
The girl is still not potty trained. I have no idea what to do differently. She will not poop on the potty unless she is really motivated. New toys are about the only thing that motivates her. But it really has to be every time, and I can’t be giving her new toys that much. I am thinking I may need to go to the dollar store and pick up some cheap things and maybe she picks out of a box or something. She won’t tell us when she needs to pee. I just have to be diligent about taking her every 2 or 3 hours. Even then she tells me she doesn’t want to go. One funny thing she always says when I ask her if she needs to go poop, she says “No, just peep.”
She has told me a few times in the last few days: “I got married in the temple last night.” When I asked who to, the first time she told me Easton, but the other two times was to Jesus. Lucky girl.
We had some pistachios (which Shayla loved). I was trying to get her to open them by herself. She tried for a second, then she told me “I can’t do it, when I get bigger, then I can do it.”
One other cute thing she did recently was while I was making dinner. I think I had some music on and she was standing in front of the oven where she could see her reflection and she was just dancing away. Then she started doing exercises: “Mommy, I’m doin’ squats, now I’m doing my core (and she lays down), now I’m doing my cool down.” She had me cracking up. If I wasn’t covered in food, I would have grabbed my camera. She went on for quite some time doing this. She really loves dancing and wearing pretty dresses. I’m going to try to get her in a little ballet class a friend in our ward teaches. I think she will just absolutely love it. She may not be very good, but she will definitely have fun.
Whenever I ask her a question, and the answer is yes, she answers “Ya-yeah.”
We are happy to have this little girl in our home. Her beautiful smile can brighten any day, and we love her.
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