Berli Update

I was realizing a few weeks ago that it has been a long time since I have updated my kids’ general growth status on my blog. Kind of a bummer since that concept is one of the reasons I started my blog in the first place. Then I realized Berlin’s birthday was just a few short weeks away and gave myself a good reason to procrastinate by planning her update the week of her birthday, which I would normally do anyway.

So here goes. The long procrastinate and almost forgotten about update. Since it has been awhile, this might get kind of long.

One of the main things that I have been thinking about Berlin lately is, “She is only turning 3 at the end of February! This whole time she has still only been 2 years old!” She acts so much older! I think it has something to do with the fact that Berlin has to do and try everything that Tryn does, but I honestly forgot for awhile that she was still only 2 years old. She plays like a 4 year old, acts like a 4 year old, and talks like a 4 year old. At church when I would drop Berlin off at her Sunday School class the ladies would ask me, “She’s really only 2 years old? She talks so well! She sounds much older than that!” So we actually moved her up to the 3 year old class a few months early, and she has been doing just fine there.

There are some things that reminded me that she really was still only 2 though. Mostly phrases like, “What you said?” which she still says all the time instead of, “What did you say?” And she always calls everything in the future “to-morning”. Referring to the past is always hard too and the most common reference is “last morning”. She also sometimes gets mealtimes confused and will call breakfast dinner and dinner lunch. She also can’t sit still as long as a 4 year old either. Tryn can sit at the table and color for an hour, while Berlin will last all of 10 minutes. Although, to be honest, I don’t know if Berlin will even be able to sit and color for an hour even when she is 4.

We had some friends over the other day who observed the fact that Berlin doesn’t walk anywhere, she runs. Berlin has so much energy that sometimes it seems like it is literally impossible for her to hold still. If she gets wired before bedtime she will bounce around the room – not kidding. She will run at the bed and bounce off of it, she will run at me and Steve and try to bounce off of us, she will be unable to sit in our laps long enough to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I think my update from her birthday last year was something like “Berlin is a party waiting for people” and not much has changed! She is a busy girl.

Berlin has started loving a few select veggies! Yay! I used to be able to not get her to eat any except corn, and now she loves fresh green beans, snow peas, bell peppers, and carrot sticks – loves them.

Berlin still loves animals. Every few weeks she will say, “Mom, I wish we could have a dog,” and that’s the only time I ever want to get one. She also loves to play in the water. I can fill up the sink in the bathroom and give her a few spoons and cup and she will play in there for an hour. Maybe because it feels like cooking, which Berlin also loves. Every single time I am in the kitchen for more than 5 minutes Berlin will come in and ask, “Mom, can I watch you?” and will be content to sit on the counter and just watch me cook. She especially loves it if there is some way she can help with the cooking. I can’t believe how much she likes it and it never gets old to her.

Our little three year old also has a new love, Diego. She likes Dora too, but Diego is a favorite for some reason. She runs around the house singing Diego songs and saying words in Spanish. So cute. She also still loves princesses, of course. And dresses that spin. We have “discussions” every morning, first about getting to wear a skirt or a dress – even when it’s -20 degrees and there are no clean tights or leggings – and then she gets really bummed if her skirt/dress doesn’t flare out when she spins. Winter skirts and dresses are not very spinny. I can’t wait for summer.

Okay, at the risk of this going on forever, that’s all for now. I need to get better at writing these updates more than once every six months, then they wouldn’t get so long!

Bottom line, I love this kid. And I have especially enjoyed her being a two year old, so much so that I feel like I am really going to miss it - which makes this a fairly bittersweet week for me. She's pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.