The Koontz Family: Is she seriously already three?!?

It's amazing to me that she is three! I was looking back through her last year of life to make her a video and she really has just grown up this year. She has matured a ton and doesn't scream as much. I feel like she has gone from a toddler to a big kid. She is a big ball of fun and comes up with the silliest things to do and say. She requested to have her party at the duck park and wanted everything to be pink, with pink sparkles on the cake.

Zara is pretty easy going and easy to please. She's happy with just about anything and doesn't complain at all! She is amazing at sharing and is the bigger person a lot of times when there is a dispute over a toy or something. She is very into all things beautiful and sparkles. She loves skirts that spin really good and is totally in an all dress phase (sometimes skirts). She absolutely refuses to wear shorts or pants, I let her pick out her own clothes to wear. She loves headbands, jewelry and chapsticks. She got some lipgloss for her birthday and is obsessed with it! She is learning to keep track of her own things and how to keep them nice and safe. We've been trying to teach her that she needs to remember where she left something, it's not always mom and dad's responsibility to find everything for her.

She gives the best snugs and at night will always ask "so...how was your day?" Zara loves princesses, specifically Sofia and Rapunzel (punzel). She is really into playing dress up and will change her princess outfits several times a day. She is learning how to do puzzles. She hasn't quite mastered it yet, but we're working on it and she's making improvements all the time. She is still quite snuggly and is very content just hanging out and doing her own thing. She doesn't require a lot of entertaining, but at the same time can still be very demanding!

She also LOVES to brush her teeth. She upgraded to the big kid toothpaste several months ago. She anticipated this for a long time. We told her that she had to learn how to spit first, she learned rather quickly! She can finally turn on the sink faucet to wash her hands herself. This took a lot of practice and determination! She still loves to be doing anything that her sister is doing and gets a lot of her cute ideas from her. She is great a swinging and has been able to pump by herself for probably about a year. She is still quite sensitive and gets very unsure about doing new things and will ask me to hold her if she's feeling uncomfortable. She really is a lot like me! She really has become her own little person once Kitana started school. It's been really fun to watch her grow and develop this year. I love my little Z so so much!

On her actual Birthday I let her pick her birthday breakfast. She picked "sandwich and chips" and she only ate the chips! Then we opened presents. She got a minnie vacuum, cinderella headband, a sparkly necklace and lipgloss/purse from mom and dad. Kitana got her a little pony and a fairy doll. I also printed some pictures of her and added them to some photo albums. She always loves to look through the albums, but the pictures are all from before she was born. She is thrilled that baby Z is now in some of the pictures! Her birthday was on a holiday so Paul had the day off! We went to a new park and Paul bought the girls ice cream from the ice cream man. Then she picked to eat del taco for lunch. She picked to eat "panda" (panda express) for dinner and then we got frozen yogurt for dessert. It was a junk food filled day. But she got to make all the decisions. She loved her birthday and kept singing "happy birthday to me" all day. I could tell that she felt very special!

From her party the following Saturday...she was thrilled to see the great grandparents there and got all hyper about it!

I wanted to take a picture with the birthday girl and she kept making the funniest little faces! There were seriously like ten silly ones. She's great when the camera comes out!