The Breuers: Lola's Third Birthday

Lola turned 3 on August 7! She is growing into such a sweet, smart, independent, strong-willed little girl. I love her to death, even though she challenges and frustrates me regularly :)

We went to our new pediatrician in Santa Clara on August 29 for her three-year checkup. She weighs 34 pounds and is 38 inches tall. She is generally healthy - she hasn't gotten sick much, other than the occasional runny nose and one or two stomach viruses. She has thinned out from her chubby baby days, which makes her seem more like a big kid.

Lola has a great personality, almost always happy and smiling. She does have her temper tantrum moments, though, and it's hard to deal with those, but we're trying. We know it's normal and she's just learning how to express herself and deal with emotions. She talks a TON and is constantly surprising me with words and phrases she knows. She is also great at reading letters.

Lola is fully potty trained during the day, but we're still working on it while sleeping. She'll stay dry sometimes at naps (and her new school doesn't do pull-ups at naps, so they're training her) but never at bedtime. We're not pushing it, just talking about how it's okay to get up and go potty in the middle of the night.

Lola is in a regular bed, and has been since about last November. It took a LONG time to get her used to it. Bedtime was a struggle and could last 1-2 hours, and then she'd get up in the middle of the night and walk down to our bedroom (sometimes multiple times). She improved, and then we moved, and she relapsed a bit. But I think she's finally back to normal, although she still does get up occasionally. We'll see what happens when we move into the new house in two weeks. We try to get her in bed by 8 and stay in until 7, but she usually ends up going down a little later and getting up a little earlier (despite a clock that turns green at 7 and us constantly telling her to stay in bed until her light is green).

Lola had her first dentist visit on August 23. She did great and smiled the whole time. The dentist said her teeth are perfect, so I'm glad we're doing a good job teaching her oral hygiene. She was fascinated by the floss they gave her, so she flossed a few times before the excitement wore off. We'll need to start making it a regular thing.

For her birthday celebration, we didn't have a big party but did some fun things as a family that weekend. Saturday we went to the Santa Clara County Fair. It was kind of like a carnival, but it also had a livestock auction and competition. Lola rode the merry-go-round and loved it.

Sunday was Lola's actual birthday. We gave her presents when she woke up - some from us and some from other family members. Then we went to lunch at the conveyor belt sushi place beneath our apartment. Lola had been asking to go since there is always a crowd waiting to get in so she was curious, but she didn't eat any sushi - only watermelon and edamame. After lunch, we went to a bakery, where we let her pick out a treat.

In the afternoon, we went to a park to meet up with the Crosbys, friends-of-friends that also went to Georgia Tech and have lived here for 5 years. Justin actually worked with Joseph at Tech, which was a funny coincidence. They have a son, Jack, who is 7, and a daughter, Caroline, who is 4. Lola and Caroline hit it off and were like two peas in a pod at the end of the afternoon.