Dear Bria,

You are absolutely the cutest right now. I let you and Crew ride your bikes inside today. You cracked me up with you held up a helmet and asked for help with the "seatbelt." You wanted me to undo the helmet strap. After spending a minute trying to figure out how to word that, I don't blame you for your wording!

You are finally FINALLY potty trained! I already told you about how we started. By the end of November, you went pee on the potty fine but would not poop on the potty. I bribed you like crazy but you were scared. I knew you had to poop because you would request a diaper. I made you wait one day and you waited all day until night came! I was scared of poo poo accidents. (Dallin went through a string of them when we traveled to Utah.) Therefore, I caved with the diaper requests.

When we were in Virginia, your Aunt Christina challenged me to not give in to the diaper. I was scared of regression but I knew I should at least give it a shot! It took you over a day and lots and lots and LOTS of unsuccessful potty tries. However, after all that, you did it! Each subsequent time has gotten slightly less dramatic. Today was the best time so far. You still want me to come with you but there was very little theatrics! Fingers crossed it sticks.

Now all we would have left to do is night time potty train you. That can wait for January! I'm just thrilled to only have one kid in diapers! You seem so grown up in you "undies." I can't believe you're going to preschool soon.

Have I told you about Crew's bunny? I've been putting Crew to be awake more often now. For forever he would breastfeed to sleep. I felt bad leaving him on his lonesome and found a stuffed animal bunny in a toy bin. Even thought the bunny was discarded and unwanted, the minute Crew had it, you wanted it! There were several day of meltdowns on your part.

You are a very good kid but you are three. The worst public meltdowns are over shoes. Your poor mom NEEDS a new pair of shoes. That is the one thing I really hate buying online. Every time, I try to find some in store, you end up throwing a colossal fit. You'll see a pair of shoes you want and royally meltdown when I won't buy them for you! You scream so loud that we get lots of stares. One Walmart employee looked at me pityingly as she let me exit without checking my receipt. I give up for now on shoe shopping when you come along shopping with me (which is almost always-sigh).

Okay, I feel like I have already written this to you but I'm going to record just in case. Ages ago (I'm thinking in the summer), you discovered that your hair had grown long enough that it bounced. This amused both you and me. Now I'll tell you to "bounce your curls" and you'll comply.

I LOVE your curly hair. I hope you always have it and that you'll love it too. Everyone always asks me where you get it from. It's a little frustrating to me because I have very wavy hair. BUT I've straightened a lot of the curl out of my hair. My hair will still curl but I've only owned a straightener for years. I'm getting a curling wand for Christmas and I'm excited for myself but also for you. It must be mentioned that your dad has wavy hair too. I'm actually more shocked by your siblings stick straight hair than by your curls!

Love you girl,
~Mom

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 10:31pm

Dear Bria-

As a family, we love to hear you say, "Kung Fu Panda" because it sounds like "Poo Poo Panda" whenever you say it. I let you watch a short YouTube clip whenever I brush your teeth. This started out as a way to distract you.

Brushing teeth was not your favorite. Now it's a routine. The past week or so you tell me that you want to watch "Poo Poo Panda. But not the first one." It's going on at least day seven of you reminding me that you don't want to watch the first one. I asked you today what was so wrong with the first one and you said, "I don't like the first one." More likely, that's the only one you've watched the whole way through!

We're slowly getting out of your wearing-a-million dresses stage. I think me locking you out of Crew's room (where said dresses are) helped. Granted, you still get into the dryer or wherever else clean, unfolded laundry is located.

This new stage is slightly better but far from my favorite. You run around naked. Yep. Naked or in you underwear. Please don't get mad at the obscene number of photos of you in your undies. You have only yourself to blame. Now you only wear three or four dresses a day and this is a massive improvement!

Your dad is out of town but you have been seeing him everywhere! You manage to spot white Toyota Carollas all the time when we're driving. You'll exclaim, "I see Dad!" I indulge you and don't try to talk you out of your belief that Dad is driving around town.

It's funny because I consider myself a very honest parent. I answer tough questions about sex and life to the best of my ability with honesty. Heck, we don't even do Santa! But I'm not perfect. As mentioned above, I tend to indulge childhood beliefs. A couple nights ago was a bad moment for me. I directly lied to you.

Here's the background. I had to put four young children to bed by myself. I was emotionally exhausted as well as sleep deprived. You were my second-to-last kid to put to bed. We had read the stories. I had already said goodnight once before I realized I hadn't brushed your teeth. I went and brushed your teeth. In the middle of saying goodnight a second time, you realized that you didn't have your stuffed animals.

I went downstairs and found your Anna "Barbie" (really it's just a stuffed animal but you love Barbies and you know I'm not going to correct you on something like that) and your stuffed dog, Biscuit. I could not find your baby doll you named "Baby Boy." I gave you your stuffed animals, hoping you wouldn't notice the missing doll. Not a chance.

"Where's Baby Boy?" you asked way too quickly.

This is the lie part. I had already looked downstairs. I didn't want a three year-old meltdown or for me to look more for him. Instead, I told you, "Dad took Baby Boy with him to the hotel! Baby boy is sleeping with Dad."

"Is Daddy giving him a bath?" you inquired.

"Yes! Daddy is taking good care of him. He's feeding him and and bathing him." We talked back and forth a little. You wanted to know where Daddy was and I tried to explain the concept of a hotel to you.

I told Dad about my fib and he stressed that we wouldn't find Baby Boy and that he would get blamed for losing him. I wasn't worried about that at all, sure that Baby Boy would show up. Bria, it's been three days and I still haven't seen Baby Boy! Dad comes home tomorrow and we'll see if you remember that he's supposed to have him.

I love you, Princess,
~Mom

Dear Bria-

You are going through a phase where you want to help me with everything. "Can I help you?" You say that to me repeatedly. Here's the killer thing. I don't mind your help. I even love it sometimes. However, Crew. Yes, that should be a sentence. Crew is such a nuisance and if I pull a chair up for you, he'll join and cause all sorts of havoc. I say no to you more times than I want to due to your brother.

Okay, I'm looking over my stickies of things I wanted to write you about. I'm glad I wrote some down because I totally forgot about this. A few months ago, whenever you said "Jesus" it would sound like "Cheese-its." You know your mom can't let that one go. Every Sunday or whenever you said "Jesus" I would deliberately misunderstand you and replace with the word "Cheese-its."

Exhibit A:

Me: Bria, what did you learn about in church today?

Bria: Jesus! (Sounds like Cheese-its.)

Me: I love Cheese-its! They're so yummy. Did you talk about how yummy they are?

Bria: Ah-huh.

Sometimes you'll try to correct me. More often than not, you'll just go with it. Your mispronunciations crack me up. I love it.

You are all-girl. Not only do you love your church dresses but you love jewelry and to have your nails done. I try to keep up on your nail polish but it comes off of you super fast. Randomly throughout the day, you'll exclaim, "Oh no! My nail polish!" You'll then want me to fix it right away.

A repeated phrase by Bria is any phrase that has "right" in it. My favorite and oft-heard right phrase is, "Right Mommy? Right mommy?" You love to repeat your self until I answer. I'll answer back, "Right!" I even started parroting back, "Right Bria?"

You're a little adult sometimes. One of my favorites is when you were leaving with someone and everyone else was staying behind. You exclaimed, "Bye, Kids!"

Every morning when you wake up, you'll shout at as, "In! In!" We totally lock you in your room and you have to wait until we let you out. It's pretty dang cute to hear you shouting at us and funny that, "in" is what you say.

I love you sweet Bree,

~Mom