Nicolette Branson at 2 1/2

I don't even know where to begin. Nicolette is such a beautiful, charming, sparkling little girl. I miss the precious baby she was so much but am head over heels in love with the adorable little lady that she is growing into. She is vivacious and charismatic. Her energy and enthusiasm absolutely captivate me. I am so blessed to be a mother to this amazing child. 

At 2 1/2 Nicolette loves preschool. She has a friend Aliza that I think she looks up to quite a bit. Aliza is about 6 months older than Nicolette and she seems to gravitate towards older girls. She wants to be like the big girls. At preschool, Nicolette has become obsessed with a Tinkerbell dress. She literally wears it E V E R Y day. And if Aliza wants to wear it, Nicolette pesters Aliza and her teachers relentlessly until it is her turn to wear it. (Luckily mommy found one on ebay so has a bid in on it hoping to "win" it so that I can donate it to the classroom so that they'll have two).  

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Daddy asked Nicolette if she would be his Valentine this year and she said, "No, Lucas is my Valentine". Nicolette and Lucas have been buddies for more than 2 years now and apparently its turning into a budding romance :-)

2 1/2 year old Nicolette is obsessed with dressing up and with everything princess related. I bought a bunch of princess nightgowns because we were having trouble getting Nicolette into her pajamas at night. Well that problem was solved and now she wants to wear nightgowns 24/7. Santa brought a bunch of costumes for Christmas and those were a hit until we bought the nighties. She was also really big into dressing up in my old dance costumes for a couple of months which was so cute. 

Elsa Nightie

Minnie was her favorite Christmas present!

"Princess Nicolette!"

Playing in my old Nutcracker Snowflake Tutu

Another old dance costume has been repurposed

We're doing well with potty training. Nicolette decided in January that she wanted to wear underpants so we basically stopped pull ups and diapers (except for bed/nap time) and went straight to underwear. She's had a few accidents here and there but overall has done such a great job! We had a little trouble early in January where she wouldn't tell us she needed to go and would refuse to go if we asked so would have accidents but I put together a simple sticker chart with little star stickers and she immediately started telling us when she needs to go and started going peepee on the potty.  We struggled more with poopoo and I had to pull out the big guns. Frozen sticker and Minnie stickers that are special for poop only. We're on day 2 of pooping on the potty on our own and she is so proud of her stickers! 

Nicolette is taking dance classes at the YMCA wish some of her friends (Leila, Ava, Campbell, Kylie, Anna & Reese). She seems so happy when we go to dance and I love watching her on the video monitor during class. She has been assigned to stand on number 5 but apparently really wants to stand on number 1. Whenever I ask her what number she stands on she says "ONE!" and I ask her if that's really her number and she sheepishly looks at me and says, "five". She's so silly. After class is over she and her friends run around and squeal like the little girls they are until I can wrestle her into her clothes and jacket to go home. We were watching a video of some dancers online the other day and she says, "Mommy are the dancers doing Passes and wearing leilatards?" I love that she loves dance and I love that she says "Leilatards" instead of leotards…especially since she has a good buddy named "Leila". 

First day of ballet
We had to borrow a leotard from the neighbors
It's probably 3 sizes too big but it worked
for the first day!

dance hugs with Leila

dance hugs

Sigh

Such joy!!!

I love that she is so happy at dance

Nicolette has been sleeping great. Eating, however, is an entirely different matter. I'm convinced that this child would be content to go days without eating. Each meal is a struggle to get her to take bites and eat. She would much rather talk, wiggle and try to get out of her chair and do other things. It's beyond frustrating. Especially when a few times a month or so ago I'd struggle to get her to eat even a little bit of dinner and she'd refuse and refuse and refuse and then when we go to put her to bed she starts crying or would wake up crying an hour or so later because she was hungry. Thankfully that seemed to be a fleeting phase. There is an exception to the food boycott…thanks to preschool she has been introduced to some foods that we NEVER have in our house (gummies, cake, goldfish, pretzels, etc). She could eat that junk endlessly and never be full. At her class Christmas party they had a cake and I think she inhaled her piece in less than 30 seconds!

Yes that is cake all over her face.

Praying before snack

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus

Daddy made it to the party too!

I'm starting to realize how many little moments, sayings and expressions of Nicolette's that are slowly slipping from my memory and it terrifies me. I'm so thankful for every photo, every video and every blog post or note that I've written to jog my memory and make those moments spring back to life for me.