Rose is a big girl now!!! We knew it would happen someday and it did. She pretty much trained herself to use the toilet this month. I thought she was ready when she was 18 months old because she showed all the signs that the books tell you to look for and say they are ready… well she sat on the toilet a lot when she was little but she could never actually go to the bathroom on it. When she turned 2 and then 2 and 1/2 we thought she was going to be potty trained and again she loved sitting on the toilet but she never had success. I tried one more time in August before Millie was born but it was still a no go. Finally she turned 3 on october 1st and that is the magic number for my kids. All of my kids have waited until they turned 3 and then it’s been a pretty easy training experience. None of my kids have physically been able to figure it out before then. So Rose followed suit and the week that she turned 3 she started using the toilet. She tells me when she needs to go and i don’t have to ask every hour if she needs to go. She got lots of lip gloss and head bands and coloring books the first 3 days of successes and then she had to fill up her potty chart to be able to open her Dora Mega Blocks. So that is her story.

She has had a few accidents – usually when she is outside or in the basement and having too much fun to make it to the bathroom. She is usually dry in the mornings so i’m thinking she will be able to ditch the night time diaper soon (big sister is still working on that one.) Every time Rose goes to the bathroom Raymond follows her in and BUGS her the whole time! He gets out the training toilet to help. He gets into the TP. He slams the lid closed…. It’s really quite annoying. It’s crossed my mind to train him while we’re at it and I have let him sit on the toilet throughout the process but as history has proven he is not physically ready.

That is the potty story for Rose Kristine, our Tiny Dancer. One more thing to check off of my never ending list 🙂 We have recently crossed off learning to ride 2 wheelers. Benji finally learned to tie his shoes. Packer is starting to break through on his reading. Raymond is officially off of the bottle… next priority is getting Cali to make it through the night without a diaper…. here we go 🙂

We have a 3 year old! Rose is so Excited to be 3. She tells me each morning that she is still 3. we learned how to do 3 on her fingers. We talk about using the big potty now that she is a big girl. Three is just a fun age. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday party and she wanted “to PLay”. So we played. She REALLY wanted Rapunzel’s mom and dad for her birthday… that was a tricky one. I know they sell the “mean” mom but her dad?? So we went with another Rapunzel and Flynn and Rose was a happy girl. She also got a Tiana Barbie, Princess CandyLand, Cinderella dress and a pink scooter! This girl loves her princesses. She loves to wear dresses and she loves to put on PINK lip gloss. She is such a girly girl BUT she is also tough and can keep up with her older siblings.

We started the day with PRESENTS! I love doing this because then we can play all day with the new toys – So at 8am she opened her gifts! Everything pink or princess!

She loved her gifts. This age is easy to please and fun, fun, fun!

We spent part of the day working on the princess birthday cakes!!! Cakes are a big deal for our family. We have fun talking about what kind of cake we want. We look at pictures on the computer and change our minds several times and then… I choose something and make it and the kids usually love it. It’s all about looks by the way – not taste (I might have over baked one batch of cakes by 20 minutes!).

Blowing out the candles, eating and cake, and sitting under the table…

Rose is finally a big girl! Since her birthday she has told me that she is big and that she doesn’t need diapers anymore. She used to insist on being a baby with Ray and Millie so this is GOOD. She is so fun to talk to. She uses full sentences and makes me laugh often. I love when she says “sure” instead of yes. Rose is a good player. She plays toys. She loves to play HOUSE. She is one of my easiest to please BUT she can be demanding. She does not give up easy and she can still throw a pretty good fit. She has recently started giving herself a timeout on her bed when she gets too worked up. Our Rosie loves to do whatever Cali is doing. She hates to get her hair combed. She loves to watch Max and Ruby and she is our first child to request the Disney princess movies. We had maybe seen each disney movie one time with the kids but now that Rose is big enough to voice her opinion we have Tangled, Brave and Aladdin memorized 🙂

The day after her birthday we invited the LITTLE cousins over for a PARTY. We made party bags, then we played games – Rose chose: Duck duck Goose, Cheep Cheep, London Bridges and Doggy Doggy. Then we opened presents! And then we decorated and ate cupcakes. And then I let them loose to do whatever they wanted. It was low key and no prep on my part and Rose LOVED it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSE KRISTINE – OUR TINY DANCER!