On October 3rd, I took Makenna by myself, to get a haircut. The last time we took her she was definitely not interested in sitting in any chair to get her hair cut so the girl had to do it while Makenna was sitting in daddy’s lap playing with his blackberry. I was hesitant in taking her myself but I figured it needed to be done and I don’t recall what Chris had going for the day but he was busy. We got to the place, and luckily, another child was sitting in the chair. This helped Makenna to see that it was not a scary thing to do and she was brave, if not braver to sit up in the chair and have her haircut. The faces she made were priceless. Just picture a look of disgust and frustration and you’ve got it down.
At one point, they needed her to put her head down so they could get the back of her hair and I said to her, “Makenna, look at your feet.” The stylist then repeated what I had said, and Makenna promptly lifted her foot to eye level thus defeating the purpose and had us all laughing. I thought, well, she definitely is clever! The stylist said that was the first time she ever had a child do that..
Earlier, before the haircut, we were at gymnastics and she happened to be laying down on a piece of equipment on her stomach. Another little girl came over and lay down on top of her. Makenna promptly and loudly replied, “No no Angela, don’t push my butt, my butt stinks!” Did I mention this was said very loudly? I was laughing and blushing at the same time.
Later in the afternoon, this same day, I was trying to get her down for a nap and she wasn’t in the mood. She was trying everything she could think of to get out of taking one. At one point she opened up her door, (which was at least the fourth time,) came out and told me that she heard a noise in her room and that she thought she had to come down on the couch. I promptly told her that it was time to go back to her room and take a nap. I eventually won but it took some doing.
Chris and I finally took a very nice vacation to Aruba, the place of our honeymoon, for our six year anniversary. It was great weather, and very relaxing. Most of our time was spent lying out in the sun either down on the beach or poolside. We did also do other activities like
snorkeling and taking a two-hour horse ride. That was fun but scary. I hadn’t ridden a horse in quite a long time. I was nervous that the poor horse’s legs would buckle underneath all the pressure as we were going down rocky slopes and up other rocky and cactus laden paths. I was wishing for some flat land, and then when we found it and the horse took off at quite a gallop, I was then wishing for the rocks and cactus hills to return. I actually got used to the galloping; it was the trotting I didn’t care much for. It was nice though when we got to ride along the ocean. Needless to say, we were a bit sore later. 
I had to take a picture of this horse - it's not one that we rode but I imagined this is what our horse felt like after carrying us all that way.
On our anniversary day, we went to De Palm Island. We took a bus to a spot where they then put you on a boat over to the island. On the island you can snorkel, do Snuba (a cross between scuba and snorkeling,) lay out, play volleyball, swim, eat, get massages, etc. We did the laying-out, snorkeling, and eating. We got quite red from being out all day. Not to say we weren’t already a bit burned from the previous days.The day before we left we took a sailing/snorkeling trip. On this trip, they took you out to a couple of spots to snorkel. The first was a ship wreck, and then the next was a place with lots of coral and colorful fish. Then they took us to a place where you could use a rope swing off the ship and plunge into the water. Chris and I had more fun watching people do this and decided not to do it ourselves.
We also went back to a few places that we had gone to for our honeymoon. Namely a restaurant called “El Goucho’s.” I highly recommend this place to anyone who loves steak! It absolutely melts in your mouth and they give you some things to go with the steak which make it absolutely delicious such as spicy onions, a garlic sauce and their famous steak sauce.Our hotel room was nice as it gave us an ocean view and had a balcony. We were only supposed to have the room for the first couple of days but they said we could stay in it the whole week. We also had all inclusive for the first couple of days and I took full advantage of all the non-alcoholic pina coladas I could get my hands on – YUMMY!!!
Not even 24 hours after getting back from a very warm 90 degrees, we get hit with snow. That stunk. Makenna stayed with Chris’s parents and did quite well. We “Skyped” every night and she could only stand to talk to us for about five minutes and then she was off. She didn’t even seem to really miss us. She was well behaved and they are now even asking us to go on another trip even if it’s just overnight so that they can have her again. They miss the routine they got into with her. They loved how she would wake up in the morning and crawl into bed with them.
On October 19th, Makenna transitioned to a new pre-school class. They were going to let her just do an hour one day then two the next, etc. She did so well when they took her over the first day, that she just stayed the whole day and that was it. I was a bit more upset then she was but for purely selfish reasons. I really liked her teachers and they would give me updates daily on a sheet of paper which I have been laminating and saving in a book. Now with her new class, I don’t get any of those sheets. With those sheets I was able to ask Makenna specific questions about her day and here I have to ask the proverbial, “What did you do today Makenna?” Her reply usually starts out, “well…..” and then usually some intelligible stuff but I don’t know if that’s what she really did or not.
Her new teachers are nice and she’s getting more used to them and her class. For a couple of days after going, she kept saying how she wanted to see her old teachers and classmates. I told her new teacher this and they went to visit.
She was able to go to the pumpkin farm with her pre-school on October 22nd. I again was jealous as this was something I wanted to do with her first, but time and weather prevented this from happening. She seemed to really enjoy it and was able to bring home a small pumpkin.
Later that same day after I picked her up I took her grocery shopping at Wegmans with me. That was truly a treat (as I say that sarcastically). She felt the need to yell at me quite often as I was trying to help her push the cart. In her bid for independence, she felt it was her turn to push the cart. As I was filling it and it was getting heavier and harder to steer, I would just use my finger every so slightly to pull it along and guide it so that it didn’t take out any unsuspecting people in front of her (or to the sides of her,) and so as to not knock down any things on the shelves from her steering into them.
When she felt or saw me helping she would peer out from behind the cart and promptly yell at me saying, “No mommy, don’t touch it! That’s naughty, you’ll go on the naughty step…got it?” I was laughing; there was no holding back my smile on that one. Not only that, but she repeatedly yelled at me. I was looking around like, “I can’t be the only mother being yelled at by their child…can I?”
We got through that and got home where the scolding continued. This time, it was on some stuffed bears. She was yelling at a bear telling it, it was naughty and that it had to sit on the step for hitting. “No hitting, that’s naughty, sit on the step.” She came and told me that the bear had to sit on the naughty step for hitting and I told her to make sure the bear said it was sorry and gave her a hug after it’s time was up. She went over to the bear and told it to say it was sorry and then she gave it a hug and kiss. But, as this bear must’ve learned from Makenna, it hit again, and had to sit yet again on the naughty step per Makenna. Again, the laughter from me was flowing but this time I was alone in the kitchen and could compose myself when she came back in with her serious face.
Then on October 27th she turned THREE! I can hardly believe it. She actually woke up that day saying that she wanted to “Watch Makenna on TV.” I’m not sure what brought that about. Chris put in a DVD of her first year that he had put together. I was tearing up watching such cuteness and how small she was (not to mention how compliant). She actually started crying because she’d see her Uncle Rich or Grandpa Jones, or daddy or you name it…someone that wasn’t present in the house with us and this sent her into a crying jag. I finally had to turn it off for the both of us.
Since her birthday was on a Tuesday, we didn’t do any major celebration…yet. She did get cupcakes from pre-school and after her Bee-Bop Tots class, we went to Grandma & Grandpa Jones and had an ice cream cake. She got a couple of presents from them that she really likes. One is a book about bees and another is this foam golf set and she calls it “Pooh Kicks” game from one of her Winnie the Pooh movies.
We plan on having a combined celebration with her cousin Katie who turns two this week. This way we can have her Great Aunt Lori and Uncle Rich come to celebrate both birthdays. She’ll get her presents then along with more cake.
People failed to mention that as soon as she turned three that she would morph into this mouthy little girl! All of a sudden she’s telling us “Shush, be quiet, my friends are sleeping.” This I have to say she picked up from pre-school. I’m just not sure if it’s from her old class or her new class. I’d almost have to say the latter as she didn’t say it previously. She doesn’t just state it, she yells it. After the first few times thinking it was cute and funny, we’re now realizing that it’s verging on disrespectful and that she needs to learn it’s not appropriate. Especially when no one is talking and she’s yelling it.
She also had picked up the saying, “No, I don’t like that.” She was saying it more a couple of weeks before her birthday and saying “I don’t like…” insert whatever. It was certain foods that she does like, or her new teachers, or anything that we tried to offer her. That seems to have subsided a bit now. It also went along with other sayings of, “I can’t,” “No Mom, Don’t do that,” and “Stop It.” All of which didn’t come out sweetly but very loud and rudely. Now she has also added “No thank you.” This again, comes out loud and rude, not calm and quiet. So we have some work ahead of us for the year of our three year old.
We did get a chance on Friday, (the day before Halloween) to take her to a pumpkin farm. Daddy did a great job of carving a pumpkin and Makenna helped scoop out a bit of the guts. She mostly colored her little pumpkin that she had gotten with her class, with markers. She enjoyed trying to blow out the candle inside the pumpkin. 
Then the next day, on Halloween, we did take herTrick-Or-Treating. She actually did quite well. She dressed as a “Snow princess” as we called it, just because she had her winter coat on. Although the weather was quite nice and she didn’t really need such a heavy coat. She did actually go up to the doors and say Trick or Treat and she was really good about saying thank you. I was quite impressed. There was one house that had a scary display and she just looked at it and later stated what we had said to her which was, “it’s just pretend, it’s not scary, and it won’t hurt you.”
Well, I know November isn’t going to be any less hectic as this week alone Monday through Thursday we have things planned every night. This Thursday she starts another level of swim class (one where I don’t have to be in the pool with her,) and I’m excited to see how she does. I just hope that she doesn’t take her new vocabulary of “No,” “Stop It,” and “Don’t Do That,” with her. Plus I hope she doesn’t put her teachers on the naughty step!