"You are the music in yourself."

Oh man. We already have a threenager on our hands, guys. This girl is SAS-SY. She knows what she wants and usually how to get it.


Live and Learn

• She got a Lego Duplo set for Christmas, and it comes with a little boy and a little girl. I recently discovered that she named the girl Mercutio. Thanks to the Baby Lit version of Romeo and Juliet for the inspiration!
• She's learning the stories and characters from the Book of Mormon. We have a kid-friendly version, and it's really been good for her. It's fun to see how much she learns, even when it seems like she's not listening. She's really into the Tree of Life story right now, which she can tell to us now.
• She's very interested in how things work. A few nights ago she asked me, "Mommy, where does my food go?" So we talked about digestion. Her mispronunciation of "intestines" was downright adorable. She also has learned from Daddy about how trees provide oxygen. (I discovered this when she said in the car one day, "Mommy, the trees help me breathe.")
• She loves doing puzzles. And she's pretty good! She does iPad puzzles as well as actual physical jigsaw puzzles.
• She's also finally learning how to ride her little kiddie bike. She has trouble peddling and turning at the same time...

Fun and Games

• She LOVES High School Musical (and both of its sequels). Those are the songs she wants to hear every day in the car and at bedtime. She particularly likes "Get'cha Head in the Game," "Stick to the Status Quo," "All For One," "We're All in This Together" (she loves it when the say, "Wildcats"), "Now or Never," and "The Boys Are Back." She has seen all three movies more than once. When we listen to the songs, she talks about what is happening during different parts. She used to ask who is singing (or playing, when referring to the background music), but now she pretty much knows all the answers. She refers to the characters by name and has actually pretended to be playing with Gabriella. And, my personal favorite, she tries to copy the dance moves. She especially likes Troy and Chad's moves in "The Boys are Back." Guys, this is seriously a dream-come-true for me. I have a kid to share HSM with! Okay, done geeking out. Moving on.

• She has also gotten into the movie Moana and the show PJ Masks. 
• She likes to play the game SpotIt! She actually does pretty well. There are even some times she legitimately finds a match before I do. 
• She's gotten really into taking pictures on my phone and my camera. They're so artistic! Haha.
• Like many kids her age, she loves playing pretend. And, I think like many kids her age, her pretend play is often influenced by the shows, books, and movies she likes. But in a uniquely Aubrey way (at least I think it's unique), she starts talking so fast and getting so excited that her brain can't keep up with her mouth. This is the point at which she descends into total gibberish. Here she is calling the Paw Patrol to help her fight some evil woman from Elena of Avalor.

Funny Girl

• As previously mentioned, she loves High School Musical. One of the songs is called "You are the Music in Me." I overheard her one day saying/singing to Carter, "You are the music in... yourself!" I laughed, and now it's a thing she says to be silly and funny.
• Similarly, she says, "I just want to be with Troy!" instead of "I just want to be with you." Again, she said it once and realized it was funny when I laughed. Now she always says it.
• She often says, "I'm starving for [insert food, such as cake]!"
• She also says, "Oh, all this [insert activity, such as playing a game] is making me tired!"
• When Daniel puts her to bed, she always makes him sing the Sofia the First theme song, interchanging the same Sofia with every member of the family. It then becomes "Daddy the first" and "Carter the first" and sometimes "everybody the first." Tonight she actually had him sing "no one the first." 
• She's begun speaking in complete gibberish to be silly.
• I often call Carter "Carter Barter," and she has misheard it to be "Carter Barber," so she calls him that now.
• Out of nowhere, she became terrified of bugs. She freaks out any time she sees one, running away and asking me to "shoo" it. When we had a picnic recently, she said, "Mommy, keep your feet closed so the bugs don't get in here!" So I took a picture.

• The other day, when we told her she had to come to the table and eat dinner, she talked some gibberish about not doing that and then said, "I'm not a little girl anymore." Well, that's good to know.
• When she coughs or sneezes, I always tell her to cover her mouth. She often ignores me until she's done, and then she covers her mouth and does a fake, super-exaggerated cough/sneeze. Then she often makes weird gagging noises. 
• She got very into The Very Hungry Caterpillar a bit ago, and then she started being obsessed with stomachaches. She would say she had one or her baby doll had one or that she didn't want to eat too much of something and get a stomachache.
• She once turned to me at dinner and said, "Mommy, did you ever kill anyone?" She was quoting Lilo & Stitch, which she had just watched a couple of times that week, but it was still so random.
• She LOVES eating "cheese balls," which is just grated parmesan cheese I've squished together into a little ball. She could eat them all day.
• Everything happened "last night." No matter how long ago something happened--and no matter if it ever even happened at all--she says it happened "last night."
• She loves the story I told about how my dad threw me in the pool with my clothes on one year during my birthday party. She always asks me to tell her the story, and then she tells me the same story but says that Grandpa through her in the pool at her birthday party.
• After a failed nap time/quiet playtime for the kids, I said, "Mommy needs some alone time. I want to be by myself. Alone. Just me." Aubrey, with sweet sincerity and apparent confusion said, "But you can't."

Sour...

• She takes toys away from other kids and waits to see their reaction. She's hoping they'll chase her, because she loves to be chased. Ah, my little manipulator. 
• She actually got kicked out of nursery a few weeks ago for kicking another kid. She full-on wrestles Carter, which he doesn't like, and does other very not-so-gentle things to him.
• I actually had to tell her, "Don't break off the blinds and put them in the heating vent." Because she did. She's pretty destructive, regrettably. She likes to pull things apart. She also likes digging holes in her wall. When Daniel asked her about it, she said, "Oh, yeah! See, when I do this," referring to digging a toy into the wall--"it turns white!" Oy.
• We tried potty training for real. It didn't work. She's capable of doing it (she can even realize on her own that she needs to go and make it to the bathroom in time), but she's unwilling. After a successful first day, she started refusing to use the bathroom and then freaked out if she peed her pants and I tried to change her clothes. So we gave up for now. When she wants to do it, she will.
• She never wants to do something that wasn't her idea. Even when you give her a good reason for her to do something, she'll contradict you just to be, well, contradictory. Example: I tell her to put on her coat. She refuses. I tell her, "But it's cold outside!" She responds, "I like it cold." So she goes out without a coat, and no matter what--even if she's shivering--she doesn't say anything. I've even offered the coat at this point, and she's still refused. 

... and Sweet

• She has become much more affectionate. She will randomly say so sweetly, "Mommy, I love you." She also says "I love you too" now when I say it first. Heart melted.
• She has epic tantrums, of course, but she has gotten really good about saying sorry afterwards. Once she has calmed down and we've moved on, she'll randomly say, "Mommy, I'm sorry I yelled/threw [item]/whatever." It makes me happy when she does that.
• She loves being helpful--giving Carter more snacks, setting the table for dinner, clearing the table after dinner, cooking, doing laundry with me, etc. She always wants to be with me, even if what I'm doing is, to me, boring and mundane. It's so sweet!
• One time, when she was holding fake flowers I just bought, she said, "I've got pretty flowers for getting married. Let's go get married to each other!" I explained that mommies and daughters can't get married because they're already in the same family, etc., and she responded, "But we belong together!"
• When I was putting her to bed the night we returned home from Peru, she said, "Mommy, I don't want you to ever leave ever again." OH MAN, I just melted into a giant puddle of guilt and love.