My three year old

It is just fitting to talk about my sweet little girl, especially when time goes by so quickly and I cannot trust so many precious moments to my memory alone. So here it is:

:: My Elena is becoming this little adult. The words I most hear her say through the day are: "My turn, my turn" or "I can do it myself". She is so eager to be self sufficient in so many ways, but in so many others she still wants to be a baby.

:: She loves snuggling except she says "You have to songa with me"

:: These past few weeks she has been trying to figure out what she wants to call Ben and me. In a very short span I have been "Mami", "Mama", and am currently responding to "Mom". Whereas Ben has been "Papi", "Daddy" and is "Dad" for the time being. There is no telling how long this season will last or what name she'll like the best. In fact, she has also tried our first names on occasion and has called Ben "Honey" several times.

:: Her favorite activities of late are puzzles, play dough and trying to draw letters. I wish I could say this is due to my excellent pre-school disciplines but it is merely due to her eagerness to learn. She is quite fascinated by letters and keeps trying to recognize them everywhere we go. My greatest shock came when she called me one day to show me what she'd drawn and as I expected to see some shapeless scribble that I was supposed to interpret a roughly shaped "E" followed by an "L" were awkwardly formed on the paper.

:: She constantly talks about her castle which, she reports, is very, very far away and we can´t visit everyday because the doors aren´t always big enough for Ben and myself to fit. So every once in a while we get lucky and the doors are big enough and we can visit her castle.

:: Her communication gets better and better each day and she evidently feels more confident because now she actually asks for Spanish words for things and sometimes just blurts out her Spanish version of something. I must admit it is quite funny to hear my daughter speak Spanish with an accent... At any rate, we have fun trying to figure out her words at times. The other day I cooked salmon and she kept calling it "Sami".

:: She likes to sing and now does so on her own. When she is playing by herself or just going about the house, she´ll be singing her versions of all kinds of songs.

:: Overall she is a very sweet girl. She seems to be very perceptive of things even though as a good three-year-old she chooses her will over reason more often than not. When we told her we were having another baby she was very excited and every day that she´d see me get dressed she´d run over, rub my belly and say "Mami, your baby is getting bigger and bigger. You are getting bigger and bigger, Mami!" As I miscarried, we brought her over to our laps and told her that the baby wasn´t going to come to us anymore, but had gone to heaven instead. She seemed a little confused and we didn´t know how much she´d really understand. She kissed my belly and said "Bye, baby" and kept on playing. A day or two after that, I was getting dressed and she came running to me. She began to rub my belly and said "Mami..." she hesitated for a couple seconds and then said "...your baby is in heaven. You need to get another one!"

:: She is a great big sister! She loves to read from her Bible but she also loves to read to Adriana from her Bible. Often, when we bring them upstairs for naps, as we go about the room getting it ready for naps, they both climb on Elena´s little bed and one listens while the other "reads".

What can I say, there is so much more I could say but I will stop here. I couldn´t be more grateful for my lovely little girl. She began me in my journey of motherhood and has made every moment of it so interesting. She fill my life with joy, snuggles and kisses. She is just perfect!