Blue Belle

My mom (who, having raised eight children, is somewhat of an unofficial expert in child development) has often expressed her belief that, "it's not the terrible two's, it's the terrible three's!" She goes on to explain that, "around their fourth birthday, however, it all changes. It's like a magic fairy waves her wand over the child, and all of a sudden they're all smiles and sunshine asking, 'how can I help you, Mommy?'"
Now, three with Aubree has been anything but terrible. I'll be the first to admit that she's an easy kid. I wish I could attribute it to good parenting, but the truth is - she came that way. Still, I think the magic fourth-year fairy came a few weeks early. I hear, "can I help you?" frequently, especially right before dinner time. (She's the self-proclaimed "stirrer.") Aubree's also taken to long proclamations of how and why she loves me and asserts, "I want to be with you forever!" She makes sure that I know that even after she's grown up, gotten married and moved to California, she'll still come visit me. I think I'm going to like this whole four-year-old thing.
As always, Aubree loves, loves, LOVES babies. In fact, whenever we go visit one of her friends who happens to have a younger sibling, she almost always first attends to the siblings, then progresses to big kid play. I watched Aubree's best friend Ella and her little sister Raelyn for a few hours last week and for the first 15 minutes, Aubree and Raelyn played in one room and Ella and Bryce played in the other.

Raelyn & Aubree (They really were having fun together, though you can't tell from this photo!)

Ella & Bryce (Strangely, don't they look more similar than Aubree & Bryce?)

Aubree has inherited her father's love of words. For the last few months she always stops us when we're reading or speaking and use a word she doesn't know or recognize. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the question, "what does _______ mean?" She listens carefully to the explanation and asks follow-up questions as needed. I can almost see her storing the words in her brain's filing cabinets.
A couple weeks ago Mark and I were talking with a friend and he asked when Aubree was starting kindergarten. We briefly explained that since her birthday is in October, she just misses the cut-off and so technically still has two more years left. Then we got in our car and drove away. Soon, Aubree piped up from the back-seat, "Mom, what's a 'cut-off'?" I explained as best I could and she sat quietly pondering for a few moments, before proclaiming, "I don't want to go to real school!" Well, I guess I wouldn't either if it meant having things cut-off. I later told this story to my dad and he suggested I explain to Aubree that "cut-off" is a synonym for "deadline." Yep, I'm sure that will help. Thanks, Dad.
Here's another funny Aubree story: Last week the father of one of my friends passed away. I didn't take the kids to the funeral, but did take them a luncheon which followed the funeral. In preparation for the event, I explained to Aubree that her friends' grandpa had died and they were having his funeral. She queried, "why are they having his funeral in this state?" "Well," I answered, "because he lives in this state. He lives here." "That's CRAZY!," she retorted, "Grandparent's don't live in the same state!"
And finally, here's one last observation Aubree made recently:
"Mom, you know, other people aren't like us...they don't buy things on sale."