Oden Adventures

Every day since April 8, 2015, I have woken up and pretended that I have known what to do with Vianne now that she's turned three.  But I don't really know what to do with this tall, beautiful, opinionated, articulate girl-lady that now lives in my house.  So we're fumbling through it...sometimes I'm stealing extra hugs and kisses before she gets any bigger and won't let me, sometimes I'm just silently admiring her humor and smarts and bravery and imagination and adorability, sometimes we're head-to-head in a power struggle about who's really in charge around here.

Vianne wakes up every morning thrilled to be alive and ready to play, disregarding everyone else's desire to continue sleeping, and hoping she will "accidentally" rustle her brother awake.  He is pretty quick to oblige and pretty soon they are playing together on top of me in bed.  She imagines & plays her way through every day, sometimes cooperating with an hour or so of afternoon-quiet-time but no more real naps, which leaves her exhausted by (a fortunately still 7:00pm) bedtime ~ though the untrained might not recognize the exhaustion, since it is marked by increased energy!

She talks and reasons like a much older kid, yet doesn't feel the need to use the potty just yet.  She can use "actually" correctly in a sentence, but a banana is still a "banna" and a guitar is still a "tar" and a computer is still a "puter"; more recently, a unicorn is a "nay-corn" and a caterpillar is a "callapitter" (and her pronunciations of magnet "man-yet" and carousel "carus-well" always make me smile, and Patrick's favorite is her "peels" for pills), and the ABC song is still missing a few letters, though she can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the best of 'em.

Her favorite color is still white.  She loves to play I Spy With My Little Eye, Hide & Seek, and "Monster Chase" with Daddy, still loves to dance and sing and make up her own songs.  She loves to play dress-up (and spends most of her day as someone other than Vianne) and ride her new bike and her favorite characters are still Minnie Mouse, Doc McStuffins, Sheriff Callie, and Strawberry Shortcake...and Spiderman.  She loves to color & paint, play in sand & water, and help with anything & everything that I will let her, especially if it's in the normally gated-off kitchen.  

She loves her family with all of her heart and often thanks God for them in her bedtime prayers (which are a work in progress...they usually include a bit of speaking in tongues at the moment...)  Every night in bed, I read her a story and then she takes the book from me and says, "This is my favorite song I ever did," and proceeds to sing her way through the book.  Then we take turns praying & give bises & butterfly & eskimo kisses and she humors me with a bit of French, "Je t'aime, bonne nuit..."

She spends most of her day asking if she can play with her friend Luke next door, from about 6:30am on until she gets to, and we're still pretty sure she's an extrovert though she often pretends to be shy when first introduced.  As often as we throw up our hands wondering how to best manage this strong-willed personality, we also deeply recognize the gift from Heaven that she truly is; even in the hardest moments, she's what we need to grow in love and faith and character.

And for what I haven't captured here in words, I'm pretty sure these photos say it all...a little bit of sass, a whole lot of sweet...

 A little spazz-out while Mama was still pressing her for that one perfect three-year-old shot...

 ...and then I got it.  (Though I'm thankful for the adorable "outtakes" which show just as much of who she is as the iconic frameable one...)

 Love. This. Girl.