Claire at 3

What can I say? This girl lights up my life! Here's a snapshot of my first daughter at age three (minus the negatives, because, hey, it's her birthday!):

• She loves to "help" mommy. If I'm not in the same room, she has to come see what I'm doing and usually says, "I wanna help you."
• She still loves to read. Favorites right now are Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Hiccup the Hero (I Can Read adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon), Pinkalicious and Purplelicious, and her toddler Bibles. She's off Fancy Nancy and Berenstein Bears for now, but she's had some intense phases of both.
• She loves baby sister. She uses this funny baby talk that's this really silly, exaggerated voice, where she basically repeats, "Hi Anna boo-boo! Hi Anna jee-jee!" and other variations of that. Anytime I bring Anna in from a nap, she has to talk to her and "pet" her. She likes to hold her hand while we're driving, but also has a great talent for tuning Anna out when she's screaming in her carseat.
• She loves Disney princess anything. It's becoming very predictable. Anything Disney princess we see, we have to stop and look at it.
  
• She loves for me to tell her stories. Often when we're driving, at bedtime, and at naptime, I tell her a made-up story. She supplies the names of the people involved (always herself, and usually her cousins Katelyn and Kerrigan, but sometimes other friends and relatives she's lately played with), and a little about the premise, and I launch into something. I have a couple standbys that are combinations of fairy tales and movies she likes.
  
• She plays really well with all kids that I've seen. The toughest thing is usually trying to get her to leave.
  
• She only takes naps two or three times a week now. We've moved her bedtime up by 30 minutes or so (I try for earlier, but she rarely goes to sleep before 9 p.m.).
  
• She can be bossy to people she's very comfortable with (often me, Mamaw, and my sister Amanda). But if older kids boss her around, she is totally fine with it.
  
• She says she enjoys the scary parts in movies (like Harry Potter, the witch parts in princess movies), and she likes to play pretend, but there's a certain deep voice I use for giants, monsters, etc., that genuinely scares her, and she immediately changes my role, or asks "Are you a giant?" like she suspects I've changed.
• She loves her outside-time in the evenings with Daddy: working in the shop, mowing the yard, and hitting golf balls are their favorites.
  
• She enjoys playing Wal-Mart. She says, "You be the lady," and then she asks me questions about where things are in the store, or how much something costs. Then she brings me stuff, and I have to "peep it" and then tell her how much she owes.
  
• She plays in her kitchen almost every night while I cook dinner.
• She enjoys Bible class on Wednesday nights and Thursday School very much, although often when I ask her what she learned in Bible class, she tells me "About Jesus crossing on the river." Recently, though, she has actually remembered the Bible story a couple times, and told me a little about it.
  

Well, I could go on, but I guess I'll stop! I love watching her grow and learn, and I pray Jay and I can help her become the woman God wants her to be.