Life with a 3-Year-Old

One night last week, I went up to bed, completely exhausted and so excited I was actually heading to bed early and would actually get to sleep early. Before I go to bed, I always go in and check on Little Bean to make sure she is covered up because she almost always gets out of bed after I kiss her goodnight. Little Bean was almost asleep, so I gave her a kiss and told her I loved her. "I love you too mama." BEST FIVE WORDS EVER!

I reached out to stroke her cheek and noticed that it felt kind of gummy. I thought it was because she sucks her thumb and had drooled, so I stroked her forehead too. It was also gummy. "What is on your face baby?" I can't remember what she said, but the truth was she had covered herself in triple antibiotic ointment.

Over the weekend we had gone to the local theme park and one of the game attendants had distracted Little Bean, causing her to trip and skin her knee. (The stupid girl even had the audacity to ask again if we wanted to play her game as we walked off, my daughter's knee bleeding, to find a bandaid. I almost jumped over the counter and smacked her.) 

Anyway, this night her dad had put triple antibiotic ointment on Little Bean's knee and covered it in two bandaids. After I had tucked her in, read to her, and given her a goodnight kiss, I went downstairs to snuggle with Hubs. We heard Little Bean get out of bed, but we just figured it was to go potty. Nope. She went to get the ointment and covered her face, arms, and legs in it. She told me she had done it so she wouldn't get a sunburn.

I got her out of bed, cleaned her off with a warm washcloth, changed her bedding, and tucked her back in. I patted her head as I kissed her goodnight again, and found gobs of ointment in her hair.

No early bed for me!

I got Little Bean out of bed again and took her down to the bathtub for her second bath of the night. She was NOT happy and cried like it was the end of the world. For the most part, I thought the whole thing was funny, although I did get really tired of her crying by the end of it all.

It took me a few days and multiple shampoos with dish soap to get all of the ointment out of her hair. It also took me a few days to discover the extent of the damage. She covered the back of one of her books, a dresser top, the top of her crayon bin, and the top of an intricately carved wooden jewelry box I had bought her in San Jose.


Last weekend we finally added an algae eater and colorful snail to our fish tank. The guy at the pet store told me to get algae tablets for the algae eater (Algernon) because I wouldn't have enough algae for him and the snail to eat (WRONG!), so I did. Now it has been hard keeping Little Bean from not only not feeding the fish when I'm not around, but also not overfeeding them. I knew this would be case when I bought the aquarium, so I was prepared. Well on Sunday I came downstairs to see Little Bean had poured in half of bag of algae tablets (you're only supposed to put in one at a time), as well as scads of fish food. I spent the next half hour performing a water change and trying to get all of the excess food out of the tank so our fish wouldn't die.

If that wasn't enough, Little Bean also decided that the dogs needed some of her popcorn. So she gave them a bunch... in their circulating water bowl... that I had just cleaned that morning.

Life is NEVER dull with a 3-year-old. But you know what? I wouldn't trade one moment of this for anything in the world. She definitely keeps life interesting, and she certainly makes it fun. I sure love my Little Bean.