Our Favorite Threenager

This girl.  

She's three-and-a-half, sweet, spicy and everything in-between.  I feel like everyone needs a little Eliza in their lives to be complete, so if you don't get your fill on the regular, I am sincerely sorry about that.

I feel like this collection of pictures depicts her current obsessions perfectly.  Baby swings, dance class, babies (real ones, fake ones, and acting like one), delaying bedtime, baby blankets, 300 dolls in her bed every. single. night.  Mom's make-up, mom's bed (especially at three in the morning), silly faces, playing princesses, and wearing her Sleeping Beauty or reindeer dress are just a few of her favorite things.

Not pictured:  Her daily breakfast request of a blueberry cereal bar, yogurt and banana, her love for her sisters, and our daily four o'clock snuggle session.

She definitely still loves her mama, but her separation anxiety seems to be a little better than it was even a few months ago.  She loves going to primary and can't wait to start preschool with Mrs. Brownlee next year.  She is much more independent than Stella was at this point (and maybe still is in some areas), and does a great job of getting herself dressed, putting on her shoes, and a few other tasks that sometimes surprise me.

Eliza Scott provides quite the comic relief at our house.  I feel like silliness and making people laugh is a big part of her personality, and I hope she can always use that in a positive way throughout her life.  And I am fairly certain I see the real-life version of each of the above faces at least once every single day.

Some of our very favorite recent Eliza-isms (and I suggest replacing all Rs with the w sound to make them even better): 

Whenever she talks about a movie or book, she calls the characters "customers."

When trying to say on the count of three, she says "on the one to the three...one, two, three!"

Looking over the edge of a 10-20 foot drop-off, "Mom! That's a hundred feet drop!"

"Sometimes I feel the Holy Ghost in my belly!"

Driving home from picking up a pizza for dinner and Ivy was crying, "Ivy, don't cry!  It smells like pizza!"

Referring to her crying baby sister, "That baby is so dramatic."

When my mom took the girls to Utah after we moved to the new house, Eliza decided she really loved Papa Paul.  After looking around the house and finally finding him she said, "Paul, were you hiding from me?"

I had been gone and Aunt Ashley had been watching her.  Ashley helped her put her Sleeping Beauty dress on and Liza told her, "Well my mom's not going to be surprised I'm wearing this dress!"

When our second goldfish, Anna, finally died she said, "We need to flush her down my toilet so she can be with Elsa again."

After watching the Church's Easter video that ends with the words "He Lives," Eliza added, "Happily ever after!"

I was doing my best to use the bathroom in peace, when Eliza popped her head in and said, "I just need to tell you don't forget to wipe and flush!"

When I asked her if she needed help going potty she said, "Well, I'll just get a stool, but thanks for asking!"

She wanted to watch a movie in the car and said, "Please let us watch a movie, mom!  It breaks my heart if you don't let us."

Eliza has the cutest back dimples that we love to tickle, and the other morning she said, "Aren't you going to tickle my back nipples?"

While drinking a Jamba Juice, "My hands have a brain freeze!"

One night Stella and I had a ridiculous argument over a fake cell phone that left Stella storming into the other room in tears.  While this was all happening I was getting Eliza ready for bed and she says, "Mom, you are ruining her day."

The girl is a major night owl and does not fall asleep for at least an hour after we put her in bed.  She usually comes out for one or two bathroom breaks, three more goodnight kisses, and numerous other random reasons.  Lately one of her favorite tactics is to open the door and ask us, "Remember when I found the golden egg at Nana Teresa's?"

After one particularly long night of Eliza going back and forth between our bed and her own, I awoke to hear her talking or singing (I wasn't sure) very loudly at 4 am.  I walked down the hall to find her with the light on and repeating "Babies like bottles, babies like books," to a wide awake baby Ivy.  Apparently she had heard her sister wake up and was doing her best to comfort her in the wee hours of the morning.

One of our family's favorite Eliza stories occurred when we were staying at my mom's for Christmas.  I was in the bathroom wearing a towel on my head and had (yet another) run-in with Stella that made her cry.  Eliza stormed over to me and growled, "Why did you make my sister cry?"  At the same moment I took the towel off my head and explained why she was mad at me.  Eliza's eyes widened and she said, "What?  You're my mom?"  I laughed a little and asked who she thought I was, to which she replied, "My Nana!"  And then four months later. a seriously sleep deprived and confused Kyrsten said the same thing to our own mom after being awoken from a late nap.

Just this week we were talking about family history for our FHE lesson.  We were using examples like my blog books and the special book we have about my dad, when Eliza opened to a page showing a picture of her Papa Scott in his casket.  She started to whimper and make her sad face (see above photos) and kept saying, "It's so sad."  Suddenly she crawled into my lap, wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "I'm sorry your dad died.  It's so sad."  It was a tender moment I won't soon forget.

This girl lights up our lives.  We love her sweet and sassy personality, and feel so lucky that she chose  to spend her days here on Earth with us.