A few photos from the beach. Stories to come later.

A few weeks ago Scott’s sister Stephanie posted on her Facebook account about her 4 year old cutting her own hair. I immediately thought to myself how glad I was that my kids had all outgrown that stage. I kind of smirked and felt like that was one parenting experience that I was glad that I missed.

So, I kind of feel like I deserve what I got

I was upstairs working on my computer when I heard Ian say “Um, Mom, Nora is cutting her hair.” in a completely calm and collected voice. I immediately panicked and ran down the stairs, all the while hoping she hadn’t cut much. After all, Ian didn’t seem fazed by it.

But, I wasn’t so lucky. I started yelling as I ran to Nora. She knew immediately that I was going to be mad. I have talked to her so many times about not cutting hair. Every time I cut someone’s hair I always tell her that only mommy can cut hair. We never cut our own hair. Each time she shakes her head and says she will never cut her hair. I guess she forgot, because this is what I found when I got downstairs.

I know it looks like I set this up, but I really didn’t. This is exactly how she was sitting with the blanket and everything.

I didn’t handle it very well. I just looked at her and yelled “NO, NO, NO!” and then saw all of her curls in a pile in front of her. I was so bummed! I just walked away because I was so upset I felt like I needed to be alone.

After a bit I went back and hugged her. I told her I loved her and I would always love her–even if she had no hair.

I took her outside and took a few photos of her new do.

I still wish she hadn’t cut it, but it could have been a whole lot worse. I know it is just hair and it will grow back, but I loved her messy curls. I promise never to judge the actions of other kids again

Nora is obsessed with Max and Ruby. It is by far her favorite TV show, and the only thing she ever asks to watch.

It is a funny cartoon about a 3-year-old bunny and his 7-year-old sister. I never see any parents, nor is there any mention of the parents. There is a grandmother bunny sometimes. I’m not really sure who the kids live with. But none of that seems to matter to Nora. It is a cute show that shows two siblings and how they work out their problems in a positive way. Nora needs some work in that department, so I am happy that she likes this show

I remember Emma and how she loved to watch The Wiggles. She wouldn’t be caught dead watching it now. I’m sure that will happen with Nora before I know it! I just wanted to remember this sweet time when she loved Max and Ruby.

I am taking an online photography course right now and we are working on shooting in different lighting conditions. This assignment was supposed to be shot in full sun (gasp!) using backlighting. This is usually a situation that I avoid like the plague, however, this technique worked great. I had fun with her and I think these turned out great!

Nora has been taking ski lessons all winter. This is really her first winter skiing. Last year we took her out a time or two, but she mostly just walked around on the flat in her skis.

This year, at three, she was old enough to do the Deer Valley ski program. All of my kids have learned to ski in that program. But Nora has been the first one who resisted going. Every week she cried when I dropped her off. All week long she would talk about her instructor “Connie” and tell me how much she loved her.

“Mom, did you know Connie is from Argentina?”

“I love ‘the magic’ Connie!”

“Mom, Connie is a princess.”

But as soon as we got to the door to drop her off, she would take one look at Connie and burst into tears. Every week I would reassure her and then just leave her crying. Each week when I picked her up they told me she was just fine as soon as I left. I saw her skiing on the magic carpet a few times. A few other times she was just sitting in the snow. I really didn’t think she was getting much out of the program, but I kept sending her every week.

Every Saturday Emma and Ian ski in a ski program all day at Park City Mountain Resort. This weekend Scott and I decided to take Nora up and ski with her for a little while. I was expecting it to be a ton of work and a lot of skiing with her between my legs. Boy was I wrong!

She was skiing like a champ on the first run. She could ski totally on her own and in control, make turns in both directions, and stop whenever she wanted to. I was SHOCKED and really glad I kept sending her to the Deer Valley ski school.

We had a great time skiing with her. Skiing as a family is looking like a real possibility now!

Check out this video:

When Nora was about a year old she used to pull out her own hair. She would pull it out and then roll it around in her fingers and suck her thumb. She did it so much that she had bald spots on her head. I kept trying to find dolls with hair to encourage her to pull out the dolls hair, instead of her own. She never really pulled the dolls hair, but she eventually stopped pulling out her own. Soon after that she started getting really attached to stuffed animals, and she started pulling the fur out of them, instead. I was going through my old emails today and I found this video that Scott’s mom sent me. I just had to share it!

We are definitely in the throws of the terrible threes with Nora.

She has been incredibly difficult lately. She constantly antagonizes Ian and Emma and then she completely freaks out when they do anything to her. Screaming fits are a regular occurrence lately.

I remember going through the same thing with Ian and Nora. I thought I had even written about it here. But I went back through the archives and I couldn’t find anything. I know that most people complain about the “terrible twos” but my kids seem to go through the terrible threes instead.

I have just been trying to be patient with her, and not let her get the things she wants when she is throwing fits. I have picked her up and carried her away from what she wanted multiple times this week. A few days ago at my parents house she wanted chocolate milk. She started whining for it. I asked her to talk to me in her nice voice and I would give it to her. She refused. She started escalating until she was having a complete fit. I picked her up and just carried her down the stairs and put her in her car seat. She fell asleep mid cry.

I just keep telling myself “this too shall pass”. I’m hoping it will pass quickly

Emma went for her first time a few weeks ago. She loved it, and Nora has been talking about going ever since. She is the stuffed animal lover in our family, so I knew it would be right up her alley.

She picked out the softest bunny. She loved it as soon as we saw the display. As a matter of fact, she couldn’t quite understand why she couldn’t have that one, instead of the flat one without any filling. But we convinced her to put that one back and she took hers to be stuffed.

She picked out a heart, and kissed it before putting it inside the bunny.

She took it and gave it a “bath”

Then she picked out a fairy costume and she got the bunny all dressed.

She named her “Hunny Bunny” and she hasn’t let her out of her sight since we left the store. It was a fun day, and a fun way to spend some special one-on-one time with Nora!

Nora is just past her third birthday and hasn’t had a real haircut yet. I really love her curly hair. It has gotten so long, but the curls just keep getting tighter so it doesn’t look very long. I have been noticing that the ends looked kind of ratty and it is starting to get a bit frizzy. I knew she was ready for a haircut. But I didn’t want to take her to the local Great Clips. They seem to have a hard time with curly hair. The way I finally got Ian a great haircut was to take him to my hair stylist, Eddie. I decided to do the same for Nora.

We talked about it beforehand and she was really excited. She kept talking about Eddie and was excited to get a big girl haircut.

We got there and she was a little bit shy at first. But Eddie was awesome with her. He just talked to and she warmed right up. He asked her if she wanted to wet it, or wash in in the sink. She wanted to have it washed! It was so cute. She hopped right up into the chair by the shampoo bowl. She got a little nervous when the water went on.

I don’t think she loved the shampooing, but she was excited to sit in the chair to have her hair cut. She jumped right up there and did such a good job of sitting still.

Eddie trimmed off the ragged edges and added a few layers. The layers will help it to curl more and she won’t look like she has a bell on her head anymore. I can’t wait to see how curly it will be in Maui in a few weeks.

Nora’s first haircut was a success. She was excited and was almost perfect in the chair. I couldn’t believe how cooperative and still she was. Hopefully Eddie won’t mind cutting her hair again some time!

Nora’s third birthday came and went and I really didn’t post much about it.

I was going back through some of my photos and wanted to post about Nora’s Montessori birthday celebration. This is Nora’s first full year in her Montessori preschool, so this was her first birthday celebration. She started last year, but it was past her birthday.

I love celebration birthdays “Montessori style”. You can read more details about the Montessori Celebration of Life here. Here is my account of what we did for Nora.

They start out by lighting a candle, which represents the sun, and placing it on the floor with all the months around it. Then they give a globe to the child, which represents the earth. The child takes the earth and walks around in a circle one time for each year of the child’s life. As they walk around the kids sing a little song (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell).

“The earth goes ’round the sun
The earth goes ’round the sun
The earth goes ’round the sun
and now your one”

They also get beads for each year, and with each rotation around the sun they place one in the little cup on their birth month.

We also brought photos for each year of Nora’s life and talked a little bit about what she did at each age. We talked about how as a newborn she mostly just ate and slept. Then at age one she learned how to walk. At age two she was talking and at age three she started school. She loved walking around the circle.

Her teacher told me that she was impressed that she was so willing to participate in the ceremony. I guess some of the younger kids don’t like being the center of attention. That isn’t a problem for Nora I think her favorite part was putting the beads in the cup!

I always really like the birthday celebrations. It is such a fun way to reminisce and think about how much they have grown. I love the way the Montessori method incorporates the celebration of the child’s life while teaching them a lesson at the same time.