Eliza at 36 months

Eliza has been asking about her birthday since before Christmas. We're all glad it has finally arrived. She is thrilled to be 3. I'll post about her birthday celebrations tomorrow. For now, enjoy Eliza's monthly update (and be impressed that I have kept this up for 36 months... I sure am)!

Eliza is apparently still a pretty big girl when compared with other girls her age. Weighing 37.4 lbs, she is in the 94th percentile. Her height of 3 feet 2 5/8 inches puts her in about the 85th percentile. I was surprised her weight is still putting her so high on the charts. To me, she just keeps slimming down, so I would have never guessed she still outweighs nearly every girl her age. I hope that changes soon.

Eliza sweeps more than anyone in our family, except Caleb.

Eliza is still full of energy and enthusiasm for just about everything (except cleaning up her toys). She loves to play dress up with her friends and little brother. She loves to pretend to be a mommy and takes very good care of her babies.

My family will be interested to know that Eliza has a foot fetish. She likes to clean and groom her feet. She gets distressed when they are dirty with sock fluffs and toe jam. The other day in the car when we were only going a few minutes away she took her shoes off. She told me that she just needed to say hi to her feet.

This little lady is always full of energy.

Splashing around in a puddle of melted snow.

Unfortunately, Eliza likes to collect stuff, pile stuff, and stuff stuff into bags. When her friends come over she brings all her toy bins in the living room and dumps them. She spends her play time making piles of stuffed animals. She will gather every blanket in the house and put it into a pile. She dumps out my clean laundry and makes "a mountain" out of it. She doesn't play with her toys very much. She just dumps and piles them. Another favorite past time is filling a backpack or bag until it is bursting at the seams with random toys and junk and carry it around (or worse, take it somewhere). If I don't put the diaper bag away when we are at home, she packs it (stuffed full of random junk) for me before we go somewhere.

Playing with the clean laundry.

She likes to make an Animal Rescue Center (like on Diego) out of couch cushions.

Eliza loves to sing and make music. She often makes up songs about whatever is going on, then she'll ask us if we know that song. She loves to be silly (I don't know where she gets it). Her brain is always going. It's fun to see how she checks the latest input against her current understanding of how the world works and asks questions if something doesn't properly compute. She is quick to catch any inconsistencies. Eliza is very loving and very forgiving. We are so blessed to have her in our family.