Abigail: 3 years old

Abigail was thrilled to celebrate her birthday this month and it seemed like a good time to update her interests and adventures.

Eating: 
Abigail continues to be a fairly good eater with reasonably varied tastes, although I sometimes think she would eat macaroni and cheese for every meal if we let her.  She does really like fish and most chicken and can usually be persuaded to eat meats with the encouragement that protein will help her have big, strong muscles to climb or swim or do whatever active thing she is into.  We have been trying to focus on eating healthier and Abigail has been largely receptive, although she prefers to have her items separated rather than combined. This has been pretty easy to accommodate and has helped our menu changes go pretty smoothly in our house.

When she sees something unfamiliar or unappealing, she is usually willing to take a bite with the reminder from Daniel Tiger to "try new food because it might taste good" and we have let her move on if she tries something but does not like it.  Lately, she is very interested in being the same as us, drinking from an open cup and using "grownup" (china) plates and bowls, although she still picks her Hello Kitty bowl a lot too.  This also extends to choices, like when I ask her in the morning what she wants to drink, she will reply by asking what Daddy is having and then ask for the same as whatever he chose.

Sleeping:  

 Abigail's big present for her third birthday was her big girl bed. She is now in a twin daybed in her room instead of her crib-mattress sized floor bed. She really likes being a "big kid" but the big kid bed also meant saying goodbye to her pacifier. The first couple nights were really difficult, and it took a few hours to fall asleep the first night with lots of mama singing, but she is now adjusting. A few days after the transition, she told my parents on the phone that she doesn't have her "baba" anymore because she is big.  She sometimes falls asleep by herself and sometimes still needs a little extra attention or singing but things are going fairly well most of the time.

Naps have been consistent at school these days after some hiccups but have been more hit or miss at home. If she doesn't nap she can play in her room during quiet time but some days we have to do a lot of reinforcing of quiet time.  Some days she plays for quiet time and ends up falling asleep right before her time is up, and staying in her room longer.  On days when she doesn't nap she still seems less resilient in the evenings and falls asleep a lot faster. She is still enjoying her toddler clock that turns green when she can get up, so that continues to be a great tool for us.

Playing:
Abigail is so playful and imaginative these days.  She really likes to play pretend with her kitchen, her baby dolls, and her other toys. She likes to be the mama and have me or her dolls be the baby so she can be in charge of them.  She has been really into puzzles for about the past six months since she moved up to her new classroom, and is very fast at doing more and more complicated ones.  It is really fun to see her try a piece, turn it around and put it in, or put it back until she finds the right spot for it. She is patient and determined. She can do 24 piece puzzles quickly on her own and can do most 48 piece puzzles with some cheerleading but not actual intervention. She got some bigger, 100 piece puzzles for her birthday and she needs help with those but has a good attention span for them.

We still go to the library regularly and Abigail really enjoys books.  She remembers more and can "read" from memory several shorter books and good chunks of longer books, which I find very impressive.  She also likes family games like hide and seek and cards, and we have been riding her bike more now that the weather is better.

Growth:
Abigail went to the doctor the week after her birthday. She was very cooperative with the doctor. She is now 38 1/2 inches tall (81st percentile) and 32 pounds (65th percentile). She continues to be pretty firm on her growth curve. I feel like she had a growth spurt the month or two before the appointment as all her pants got shorter very quickly.

Abigail loves being independent and since her birthday has spent a lot of time telling us about what a big girl she is and all the things that are different now that she is a big girl. In addition to her big girl bed, she decided she does not want to sit in her highchair or wear a bib anymore, and we agreed this was fine. She likes being helpful in putting silverware on the table or helping me pack lunches for all of us in the mornings. 

 She is starting to grasp the idea of spelling and can spell her name and spell out things she sees written on other items, preferably in upper case letters at this point.  She can count consistently to 15 but then often goes right to 16, 19, 20, so we are continuing to work on that.  We are starting to practice making letters and numbers but she has a pretty short attention span for it these days so there is no rush. She continues to love to be outside and asks for the park regularly.

Communication:
I love hearing Abigail tell us stories and imitate little things we say.  When we had her parent-teacher conference in the fall, her teacher told us that when she is introducing a new activity, Abigail is one of the first kids she asks to demonstrate it because she picks things up quickly and can provide a good example for the other kids on how to do the task.  She also has a great sense of direction and when in the car will talk about how we go this same way to the zoo as we go to Target, but if we turned that way we would go to swim school, but if we turn this way we would go to the museum. I am very impressed by what she remembers and her mental map of our neighborhood.

Here is one of Abigail's stories: "I was talking to Alex and he said 'there are crocodiles in the pool' and I told him, 'Alex, you can't go in the pool when it's raining'!" [Laughter]

Abigail loves to ask "why?" and sometimes asks even before I am done with my sentence, like "I am putting daddy's shoes inside so they don't get wet in the rain". "Why?" But she has lots of good questions we never thought about, like, why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?  We had no idea, so we asked the internet and found out that "Hello Kitty speaks from her heart". So now if you ask her why Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth, that is what she says!

She can also come home and tell us more about what happened at school and construct the story of who got in trouble or why dress up was closed at school.  She also loves to hear us tell stories, over and over, about things that happened when she was little, or we were little, or random events that she finds interesting. She can still be shy at times in new situations but is becoming more comfortable. I am impressed a lot by what she can remember and share with us and how well she is able to articulate her feelings, thoughts, and adventures.