Daisy, you are 3!

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I can vividly remember your 1st Birthday. As the day drew closer I found myself thinking back over the birth a lot.

We spent the day on holiday and made the best of celebrating you becoming 1.

When you turned 2 we spent the day visiting family and I felt that it was your best Birthday yet.

This year, as you turn 3, we are spending the day with lots of our family and making a celebration of the whole day.

This morning we will begin with a special pancake breakfast, with Grandma, before we head over to a little tea party at Nanny & Grandad’s house.

Auntie Jamie is even making you a wheat, gluten, dairy, soya and coconut free cake to suit your FPIES allergens. That is no mean feat! I’m really excited for the day ahead but I wanted to start by sharing this post – Daisy, you are 3!

So much has happened in the year since you turned 2. Even more since the year you turned 1 and we had a DIY cake smash for you. We have been invited on many lovely days out, thanks to this blog.

We have been on a nice handful of free holidays, again, and you’ve loved them all. Being able to swim daily, and enjoy a nice soak in the hot tub, has been one of my favourite ways to spend my downtime with you.

We visited the Paradise Wildlife Park and enjoyed visiting the new World of Dinosaurs. This really awakened your interest in animals, and days out in general.

I love watching you learn new things, and it is always good to get out of home and stretch our legs together.

You absolutely love Peppa Pig and this love has only grown since we visited Peppa Pig World. Every morning you either ask to watch Peppa or you ask to play on your tablet.

We don’t worry about setting screen time limits and instead just spend our time trying to play with you and keep you occupied.

You’re a BIG lover of a trip to the farm. Anywhere that has animals is a winner for you but in the past year, you’ve loved visiting Willow’s Farm and Lee Valley Park Farm in particular.

I love it when you come home from a day out and spend days afterwards talking about everything you saw.

Spending time with Daddy is something that you love SO much. When he is at work you often ask me how long will it be until he is home, even though you have no real concept of time yet. In the evening, as it gets dark, you start to look out of the window for Daddy to return.

When you have days out with just Daddy these seem to be extra special to you both. I love hearing what you’ve been up to, but also I love a full day to work, relax or just enjoy some time to complete jobs at home.

In the past year you’ve stayed clumsy but definitely have more resilience now. You did a ‘trust fall’ off the slide at Nursery last year, and banged your nose. Then you kept picking it, for what felt like months, but eventually, it healed.

You’re regularly falling over, or even causing me to fall over, and this gives us lots to laugh about. I’m glad that you’re already so strong and confident.

When you see someone hurt themselves the first thing you do is offer comfort, and enquire if they are ok.

You’re aware of the hospital, as you’ve had more appointments in the last year, and have even had blood tests without getting upset.

When you accompanied your Grandma to the hospital recently you gave her Doctor a huge round of applause after he had listened to Grandma’s chest – declaring he was a VERY good boy for making your Grandma feel better. The Doctor was genuinely thrilled that you were so happy and said you had made his whole day!

Your adventurous side has really started to shine through in the last year. You seem to be at your happiest when you are running, dancing, laughing or climbing.

Getting your bike, and trying to ride on it down the slide, is just one of the many creative ways you think of to terrify me.

You’re happy to try most things, with a little gentle encouragement. You regularly tell me ‘I’m a strong girl’ while completing difficult tasks, or offer the same encouragement to me when you see me doing something hard, or struggling.

This makes me feel so happy that I’m instilling in you that as a female you can achieve anything you want to achieve.

Your sleep is the worst it’s ever been, however, Daddy and I have really just embraced it. You love to sleep in our bed, and you love to watch ‘Goodnight animals’ on YouTube before you go to sleep.

You’re not a child who needs 12-14 hours, and now we have accepted that our family life is much more harmonious.

Your bedtime routine of old has long since ceased, and now we just play it by ear. From time to time you will go back to having a week or so of 12 hour sleeps and we think you’re returning back to sleeping lots but then it stops again!

There have been a few occasions where you’ve slept for less than me and sat patiently waiting for me to have a nap or wake up. Your patience is growing daily and it’s so amazing to see.

You’ve fallen asleep in some odd places over the last year – and stopped using your dummies too!

One of the most commonly asked questions from you is “Can I help?”. I love that you’re always so willing to help me around our home and I’m trying to use this to spend further time together.

You love nothing more than loading the washing machine, or the slow cooker, and regularly enjoy impressing your Dad by showing him all the jobs you can achieve.

When the vacuum cleaner comes out you love trying to help me and I’m always patient enough to let you join me, even if sometimes it generates more work for me! 

Playing with your toys is still one of your favourite things to do. Also in the last year, you’ve started to enjoy more time on your tablet, taking part in crafts and being creative.

I’m not always particularly creative but I’m always researching things to do on Pinterest and looking for new craft goodies on Amazon.

Your attention span is slowly growing, to around 30-40 minutes for most activities, and this is fantastic. I love watching you learn new things and you regularly surprise me with your little antics.

Being outside is one of your favourite things to do, especially in the warmer weather, and I’m looking forward to Summer in our own house this year.

Holidays have been one of your firm favourites in the past year. We’ve been to Bluestone, been to Centerparcs lots too and you loved staying in a Centerparcs Waterside lodge.

You’ve had so many lovely holidays in the last year that you think a hot tub is the norm on holiday. Whoops.

Disappointing times ahead for you as we go back to having slightly fewer holidays for the next year or two, as we save for the next chapter of our family life.

Every week that passes you get bigger, strong and smarter. You start to look more and more like your Daddy, and EVERYONE comments on this!

Sometimes I think you’re his double, and other times I see lots of me in you. I love seeing you copying some of my mannerisms and you seem to be developing a wonderful, kind, thoughtful personality.

The way you speak to people is mostly lovely, although you love the odd cheeky swear word too, just like me! 

Our bond has become even stronger in the past year. You regularly like to sit and cuddle me, for no reason other than to enjoy my company, and this makes my heart sing.

I love that we’re growing closer with every year that passes and hope that we will always have a strong, wonderful bond.

Spending time together, particularly trying new things, is something that I really enjoy. I know you do, even if I wouldn’t let you swim in this lake by yourself. 

Your health has been pretty good in the last year. You’ve had barely a cough or cold and we feel really fortunate. The last year has seen us settle into a routine with semi-regular hospital appointments but you continue to grow well, tracking on the 91st centile for height and lower down for weight.

A couple of days a week you and I relax at home. You seem to love these days and when you ask if we’re going out today, and I say we have no plans, you’re always so happy.

On these days we relax in our PJs, make popcorn and enjoy a nice soak in the tub together. You love it when I use bath bombs and when the bath is pink or purple.  I love it that you’re just sitting still for 15 minutes and I can semi-relax!

You are a HUGE fan of lunchboxes. You spend half your day asking me if you can have a lunchbox, usually while eating your breakfast or dinner. It’s great to be able to offer you such a wide variety of food, especially with all your allergies.

Every time I present you with a closed lunchbox you’re excited to see what is inside.

If you fall asleep holding your lunchbox you basically have a death grip on it! I have tried, several times, to remove your lunchbox from you and you start to cry!

So many people comment on your lunchboxes when we’re out and about, which makes me feel really proud. It’s hard to give you a very varied and balanced diet, but I try my best.

You’re the queen of sass and already a BIG hint dropper, which I find very funny. Recently, when we were home for the day, I heard you talking to your Luvabella.

You were telling her she had an ice lolly, and it was all over her face, and then giving me the side eye as you mentioned that you wished you had an ice lolly. It did make me laugh and even though it was only 11:30 am I gave in!

You love to wear a dress and have your hair tied up. Thankfully you’re happy to be taken care of and perform basic things such as brushing your teeth – with my help of course.

My wish, a year ago, when I wrote Daisy is 2, was that you would outgrow at least a couple of your allergens. You are now able to enjoy strawberries AND can have foods with Xanthan Gum in.

This has been wonderful for us and opened up a whole array of new foods for you to experience. LOTS of naughty foods, like pastry and pies, but also more bread and other items.

You can tolerate small amounts of coconut oil, but we try to avoid this still wherever we can, as it can make you feel poorly.

Being able to have Xanthan Gum allowed you to enjoy your first proper gingerbread man! You were SO excited that you shouted all around the shop and you opened it, in store, to an audience, so you could bite the head off! I was chuffed as I didn’t have to make homemade gingerbread!

Christmas with multiple allergies will always feel difficult but we left treats out for Santa and he loved the homemade mince pie we made!

You’re so smart, and know how many beans make five! You know that these little rides need money to move and often ask me ‘Have you got a Pound, Mum?’. This makes me laugh, and I almost always oblige you.

You can name animals beginning with specific letters, like snake, monkey, alligator and more. You can count past 20 and you can spell your own name.

Also, you know how to type the full alphabet out on my keyboard, which is so much more than I ever imagined you’d do at this age!

You love learning new skills, but can be VERY headstrong! Recently you got your first bike and you were thrilled, although not so quick to pick up the pedalling!

The park is one of your favourite places to visit. You regularly talk about it when we are making plans for the following day.

You don’t mind if we visit the tiny park near Grandma, or the huge town park where we live, you just want to go down a slide and have a little run around as regularly as possible.

I love being there, witnessing you learning and growing every day.

Daisy, you are such a strong, confident and knowledgeable little soul already! I love watching you learn more daily and teaching you anything is just about my favourite thing to do.

All of the years of waiting for you to arrive feel like a distant memory now, along with your birth. Our bond is so strong and I look forward to pretty much every day that we spend together. You love to listen to music in the car, and know your own mind, which is fine with me! I feel so proud, and privileged to be your Mum. Daddy and I love you so much and look forward to another fantastic year watching you grow older.