Such a big girl

Peyton turned 2.5 years old just before Graham was born and having Graham has really shown me how big she is and how grown up she has gotten. She has such a big and strong personality and it is such a delight (not so much during the intense temper tantrums) to see her become her own person.

Peyton is a "myself" kind of girl. She is very opinionated on how things are to be done and she must do everything. She is very stubborn and would rather not do something or have something than ask for help and then when she asks for help she typically watches how you did it, undoes it and then does it herself. She loves to help clean, pick up her toys and is a big helper.

She is talking non stop, repeats everything and I love having conversations with her. She is also really funny and comes up with crazy stories and cracks herself up. She is constantly surprising me with everything she knows and can tell you shapes, all the letters, count up to 15 (maybe higher but I have only gone that high), most colors (when she isn't being silly and telling you everything is blue) and is so much more aware of the world, how things work than I ever thought she would be at this age.

As strong willed and difficult as she can be, Peyton is very polite. I took her on a date on Sunday to see Disney on Ice Toy Story 3 and was so impressed with how well behaved and polite she was. She held my hand the whole time and followed instructions. When we ordered some water and her cotton candy she went up to the counter and said "excuse me, water and cotton candy please," and then when we got our stuff said, "thank you, have good day." I was so impressed with her! She has lately been saying please, thank you, no please (instead of no thankyou) and just been really polite. While she can be difficult...when she wants to she can be so compliant and sweet and easy!

She has adjusted as I expected to her role as a sister. She is jealous but never acts out on Graham but directs it towards us which I am relieved about. She does love to sing to him and talk to him and loves it when he is awake and looking at her. Peyton insists every night on giving him a kiss and a "big hug" and prays for him without being prompted. She is learning how to wait patiently, share her mommy and daddy. I am sure she would be much more interested if Graham didn't fuss so much and was older and could interact with her.

I am finally finding my groove with her and we are working well together. I am learning that I have to be more stern with her than I naturally am and that is hard to do and remember. I can't relax an inch on discipline because then she will take a mile. I have learned that clothes don't have to match, that it is ok to wear black boots with shorts when you are getting the mail, that letting her have (parent directed) choices makes for a happier Peyton and Mommy, that Peyton needs time to transition from one actiity to the next and is pretty happy to oblige when you give her time to adjust.

I wa going through our books the other day and came across the book by Gary Chapman called Five Love Languages...it is meant for marriage but briefly looked over it and tried to think about Peyton and what her love languages are. I am still narrowing it down and I am sure she will change but currently I am learning that Peyton has a strong need for words of affirmation (just like her daddy). When we were heading home from our date and I told her how proud I was of her and how well behaved and polite she was, she glowed. Peyton also loves quality time (just like mommy) with just mommy or just daddy and even more so after Graham's arrival.

Peyton, I feel so blessed to be your mommy and love you so much! I hope you always know that we love you and that you have a heavenly Father who loves you so much more than we do.