My little Cheeseola is 3.5. Every day she cracks me up and tests my patience to the limits. I’ve stopped keeping detailed notes about her development and cute things she does, so I’m writing it down here so I don’t forget all of the tiny adorable details of my little girl’s childhood.

She collects gumnuts off the footpath and puts them in her pockets.

She says things like “yes, that’s very difficult”.

She asks for water “with ice and a lemon”.

She has a huge heart. I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone, and she is welcoming to anyone who wants to play with her.

Her emotions are huge and she can’t yet control them.

She’s obsessed with counting, singing and dancing.

She wants to do everything by herself, and in her own time. Including toilet training.

She loves to make me laugh.

She’s a big mummy’s girl and I love it.

She has so many questions. “Why?”, “What’s that?”, “What’s that called?”, “Where is that?”, “What’s the name of this place?”. Her curiosity is relentless.

She’s empathetic. She’ll notice things like “she looks sad”, and want to cheer her up.

She’s got an excellent memory. She’ll come out with things like “I want to go to our old home. In Brooklyn”.

She’s a bit vague. Just like her dad 😉 She has a hard time remembering where she left things, and it’s hard to get her attention when she’s focused on something like, say, the iPad.

She’s relentless. I do admire that she knows what she wants and keeps on at me until she gets it, even if it drives me nuts at the time.

She has an active imagination. Her fantasy world of princesses and fairies is just amazing to behold.

She gets bad dreams. So bad that she sometimes says “I don’t want to go to sleep, because I get bad dreams”. It makes me so sad.

She barely eats. I feel like I’m always force feeding her because she just doesn’t think to eat, even when food is right in front of her. She’s always focused on something else.

She’s a great performer. She loves dancing and singing in front of an audience. This is not a shy child.

She’s loud. No surprises where she got that from.

She loves watching live shows. I have a wonderful time taking her to performances and plays – she gets so much joy out of them.

She’s crazy active. She’s always been super active, and nothing has changed. She’s always pushing herself to her physical limits.

She’s intense. Oh man is she intense. It’s exhausting, but also entertaining, exhilarating and maddening.

She loves putting pieces together. Like Playmobil and Minnie Mouse Bowtique. She’s not into blocks, but she loves making character-based worlds come alive.

She has started to take an interest in what she wears. She loves dresses, particularly tutus, and anything sparkly. She loves bow hair clips, tiaras, ballet shoes and accessories. She also likes having her fingernails painted.

Her favourite shoes have gingerbread men on them.

She has just mastered the scooter. After a year of refusing to even give it a go because it was “too hard”, the other day she just decided she wanted to do it, and so she did. Minutes later, she was off like a pro.

She’s still a terrible sleeper. If she’s not coming into our bedroom at 4am and climbing into bed with me, she’s up between 5:30 and 6am. Alec and I are so tired.

She wants to wear a dress every day.

She loves watching Barney, The Wiggles and Strawberry Shortcake.

She loves dressing up as fairies and princesses.

She wants to fly “Oh I wish I could fly!”

She loves her grandparents and says “I miss them terribly” when they leave.