Happy {3rd} Birthday!

My little girls are THREE! I cannot believe it!

The girls can tell you when their birthday is, and how old they are (with a little help: "you were two, now you are...?") They also know their full names. When I ask them what my name is, Lyla usually says Alli Sorenson, but when asked what their dad's name is, they both tell me that it's Dad - which I think is super cute! :) And their brother is named Axel Baby Brother! They can also tell you what city we live in!

They have a check up next week and we'll figure out exactly how big they are!

They are figuring out how to dress and undress themselves. They might be better at it if they got dressed every day...but there have been MANY days this summer that they just want to hang out in their pajamas all day, and heaven forbid I even suggest brushing their hair!

They LOVE dresses! As soon as she gets a dress on, Alya almost always says, "I'm SO pretty!"

One of their favorite things to do while we are driving is to play "the animal game" in which I (or Matthew) describe an animal until they can guess what it is. The first time we played it I was surprised at how good they were! They have even started describing some animals to me on occasion!

The girls got some binoculars for their birthday and they just canNOT wait until Dad takes them to look for deer and elk!

They have been *mostly* playing really well together these days. Of course they have their fights...all sisters do, but they will play together for hours, and the result is usually that it looks as if a tornado has run through my house! They like to pretend they are birds or owls and they pull all of the pillows and cushions off the couches to make themselves a nest. Or they pretend they are going to Grandma's house or to the ocean, so all of the pillows and cushions become their car. They also like to put each other to bed. They mimic what a typical bedtime looks like and they take turns being the mom (or dad.) Alya will put Lyla to bed in the front room, and then she will come get into my bed. Shortly after "Mom" is in bed, "Little Baby" will come into the room. Here is a dialogue that I overheard one day:
Alya (Mom): *after Lyla (Little Baby) got out of bed and came into Mom's room* Just come cuddle me for a minute.
Lyla (Little Baby): Okay

*Cuddles for about 10 seconds*
Alya (Mom): Okay, it's time to go back to your bed.

Lyla (Little Baby): NO!

Mom (Alya): There are no scary monsters! If you get scared, just call Jesus. Do you want me to sing "See the Temple?" *She then proceeded to sing what she knew of the song while she tucked Little Baby back into bed!*
They love to play the piano and they can both sing all the words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "I Love to See The Temple." I have also heard them singing "Old McDonald" recently. SO CUTE! I have also heard them singing what they remember of "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and the other day they were playing the piano and singing at the top of their lungs, "I LOVE JESUS!" over and over again.

-LYLA-

Lyla has such a tender heart. She is very emotional!! There are days that the smallest little thing can just set her off and then she is just weepy all day! She worries about her family. The most recent example I have is of when Baby Brother was born. She was very concerned about the fact that we didn't come home from the hospital with them when they came to visit. After we were home, my sister came to see us and while she was here she joked a couple of times about taking Axel home with her. Lyla did not like that idea at all! So when Matthew's family came to visit, as they were getting ready to leave, she made sure they all knew that Baby Brother was not to go home with them! She was really worried about it!

I have a list of funny/cute things the girls have said (which will find it's way onto my blog one of these days...) but one of my favorite Lyla quotes is:

Lyla: "Mom, look at those birds!"

Me: "Yeah! They are flying!"

Lyla: "I wish I could be a bird like that."

She is just so sweet, and sometimes it's really fun to basically watch the wheels turning in her head.

Any time Alya wakes up from her nap before Lyla, Lyla will come upstairs in tears, crying "Alya left me downstairs!"

She is a little hoarder! She will carry around more than her little arms can carry! And she keeps track of every single item she has attached herself to, no matter how small it is, and she carries them around for days upon days...until she finds something else, or I manage to sneakily put something away!

Her favorite color is pink, and she wants all things pink! She wanted pink binoculars for her birthday. And no one else's favorite color can be pink, because it's her favorite color. She usually likes to pretend that she is either a mermaid or Elsa.

She loves to pick flowers, and somehow seems to find some everywhere we go!

She also likes to help me with chores. She LOVES to sweep and mop and wash the mirrors in the bathroom or clean the windows.

Lyla weighs 32.4 pounds (50-75%)* and is 3 feet 3 inches tall (75-90%)*

-ALYA-

Alya is a sweetheart! She certainly has a temper, though! She can throw a tantrum with the best of them! She is VERY stubborn, and VERY smart...almost cunning! Tonight at dinner she tried really hard to convince her dad that she ate her meat. "I ate it with a chip, Dad!" She is so independent! She has been known to take one of our barstools over to the counter and pull down a bowl or a cup and fill it with water so the girls can use their watercolor paints, or she'll get her and her sister a drink. I even found her standing on a stool in the pantry trying to reach the snacks one afternoon. And Lyla hasn't quite figured out how to turn the water in the bathroom on, so Alya is always more than willing to turn it on and off for her sister. 

She likes to be helpful more outside of the home. Where Lyla likes to help me clean, Alya would rather help me with groceries. She wants me to show her what to pull off the shelf and then she wants to put everything on the conveyer belt and put the bags back into the cart. She also likes to help me bring the groceries in the house.

She likes to watch T.V. and has figured out that if she and Lyla fight over a show,  they don't get to watch one. So the last couple of days, if they start fighting about a show, she quickly changes her mind and agrees that she wants to watch what Lyla wants to watch.

She gets scared fairly easily. She gets really nervous that the guy who mows our lawn is going to bring the lawnmower into our house. I think she has been having nightmares. She has been coming up to our bedroom almost every night since last December and most of the time, when asked, she tells us she's scared of monsters. I also think that another possibility (sometimes) is that she just doesn't want to stay in her bed! Lyla is also pretty good at convincing Alya to come upstairs when they are supposed to be trying to go to sleep at bedtime. Although, I'm not sure it takes much to convince her...I've heard Lyla simply say, "Alya, go get Mom!" and Alya doesn't seem to hesitate! There has been a lot of trial and error for Matthew and I to try to get the girls - mostly Alya - to stay in bed at bedtime.

She loves her sister and brother, and she is definitely a Daddy's girl!

Her favorite color is blue - I think Lyla helped her make that decision, because there is no way Lyla would let her favorite color be pink! She wanted a blue birthday and blue binoculars for her birthday.

Alya weighs 33 pounds (50-75%)* and is 3 feet 3.5 inches tall (75-90%)*

*Percentages based on information I found online.