How to Wear Out a Three Year Old

I can't believe how much my little girl has changed over the past 6-12 months. We went to my Mom's Group Annual Halloween party at a park today. The little girl who used to cling to me at any large gathering as if her life depended on it is now a totally different person. I guess it's been a gradual change over the past 6-12 months but today I really realized how different she is. When she was a year old, we went to Gymboree class together and she wanted NOTHING to do with the parachute. She just had no interest in a big sheet filled with colors that you flop up and down. She also never really sang the songs or danced around like the other kids. She preferred to climb on the equiptment and do her own thing. I was fine with that, I figured she was just always going to be a shy little girl like I was for many many years. Well, today at the picnic, they pulled out the parachute, she saw it, looked at me and said, "Look mommy!" as she started to race towards the big colorful sheet of fun. She had a blast flopping the parachute around and running on top with the other kids. Here are a couple pictures. (Allison is in the pink pants and white t-shirt)

Another thing she was always very afraid of was slides. She always wanted me to hold her hand as she went down the slide. She's just a cautious person - definitely nothing wrong with that! The other day when I picked her up from school she was all excited because she had gone down the BIG red slide on the playground all by her self. Today, she was going down the big slides like she had been doing it for years! Like I said, she's a changed person. I guess part of that is aging but I think being in school has brought her out of her shell even more than she was when she started. She seems to enjoyed structured group activities now, whereas before she wanted nothing to do with them.

Daniel had a good time at the party too. He hung out with his friend Logan and they agreed to make the same expression for my photo...

After a very busy day, poor Allison was completely worn out. This is her about 1/2 hour after we got home. Luckily we managed to get her in her pj's before she conked out...