Happy 3rd Birthday to our sweet Natalie!
Today was a pretty fun day, even though David and I both worked all day. We sang Happy Birthday this morning, got the girls ready for daycare and sent them off with cupcakes to share with her friends.
Tonight after dinner we gave her her presents. She was having fun opening everything. (and lesson learned, gotta make sure toys are accessible come Christmas - waiting for mom & dad to open the packaging is no fun!)
Rhys was busy checking things out too. She was digging things out of the bag faster than Natalie could open.
This is her surprised face - complete with ketchup from dinner.
The Rapunzel doll is a hit. (and see Rhys in the background? She is busy looking for more presents..)
Natalie modeling her watch with a mouthful of water. Her friend at daycare has a watch and she talks about it a lot, so I thought she'd like one. The first thing she said when she opened it was "I gotta show Daniel my watch!"
And, a little update about Natalie at 3:
The crazy tantrums have started to subside (and literally, just in time for Rhys to start. Oh Joy). They are becoming more rare, but when she throws a fit, it's not pretty. Since we've been at this since she was about 18 months old, I'm more than ready for these to become a thing of the past. Here's to hoping 3 is easier...?!
Natalie has been counting everything in sight! We were at the store the other day, and she was walking up the aisle counting the milk jugs, she counts objects in her books, food on her plate, anything that is grouped together she starts counting. 1-10 are solid, sometimes 11-20 are good, and sometimes they get a little jumbled.
She loves to sing the alphabet! She's got the song down great; even the ending. She recognizes the majority of the letters out of order when we practice her flashcards. She gets a few of them mixed up (W &M, C & S), but for the most part she's got it. She's starting to ask me "What's ___ start with?" when we read books.
Books, books, books. She could listen to books for hours.
She also loves to color with crayons and her no-mess markers. She will sit at the kitchen table for 30-45 minutes at a time just coloring.
She's really good at puzzles - we gave her some new ones tonight and she was able to put them together with a little help. She picks up a piece (remember, to a puzzle she's never seen), and plops the piece down in it's spot. Crazy! The new puzzles are 25 pieces. They take her a little bit to figure out, but she's starting to see that if she matches the colors or designs that she can find the matches.
She's also really good at the game Memory. We have a version installed on the ipad and I set it up for 12 cards. She usually picks 2, and then keeps picking the first one and another until she finds the match. Along the way if she recognizes a duplicate, she goes straight back to the original and gets the match. Good short-term memory! Sometimes even I think they look familiar, but can't remember where it was.
Her night-time routine is funny. We get PJs on, read books, she drinks some milk, goes potty, brushes her teeth ("Gets her sugar bugs out") and then she insists on "Getting her earwax out". She doesn't want to miss any of these steps - If you try to skip any of these steps to hurry things along, she let's you know.
Natalie continues to be a picky eater at home. She seems to eat just fine at daycare; we never hear complaints of her not eating what was offered. But, at home she refuses to eat a lot of the stuff we suggest. We need to work on getting this into more of a routine.
The girls are playing together more and more. Rhys has realized that big sister's have fun toys, which doesn't always make Natalie very happy. We are working on sharing and not ripping things out of other people's hands. Fun stuff around here.
Natalie likes to ask me "what does red mean? STOP." And she puts her hand out. "What does green mean?" and I tell her "Go, go, go" "What does orange/yellow mean?" And she tells us "Slow down and be careful". She likes to narrate when we get to stop lights.
I think Natalie is starting to get into the Princess phase a little. Sometimes we let her watch Rapunzel (well, I guess technically it is "Tangled") on the weekends. She loves to put on her princess dress and spin around. And tonight she seemed to really like brushing her Rapunzel doll's hair.
Stats for 3 yrs:
Height: Forgot to measure! Will do this tomorrow
Weight: 30.75 lbs
Shoes: Size 7/8 **
Clothes: Size 3T/4T, some of her 3T pants are too small so she'll be moving to 4s soon. She can comfortably wear 3T shirts for a while yet, but depends on the brand.
** Some 7 shoes are too small, and some 8s are too big. She's had a huge growth spurt lately. We got a whole bunch of 7 shoes from Anna at the end of April that were all too big, and the other night she found some that we rarely wear and was trying them on and most are too small now. So she went from a 6 to 8 in less than 6 months. Same with her pants.
So, now Natalie is 3. And thank goodness because people give you strange looks when you say you have a "2 year old and a 1 year old!" No idea how the time went so fast, but we are looking forward to these pre-school years!
