three years old

Celia turns three today. It took all week for me to write this. She's grown into such a complex little person that I don't think I can do her justice with this post. There aren't words to describe what a wonderful little girl she is, and how much we love her. Three seems like such a milestone. Celia is balancing on the line between baby and little girl. She is changing every day and becoming so independent and mature, but is still in many ways a toddler.

She has been looking forward to her birthday for months now! For the last couple weeks she's been asking almost every day if it's her birthday yet. We started crossing off days on the calendar so she could see how many days were left.

Stats: Celia weighs 25 1/2 pounds. She's stayed at that weight for a long time now. I looked back at her 2 1/2 year post, and she was 25 1/2 pounds then too. She is still quite small for her age, but she's been growing taller and leaner, looking more like a (tiny) little girl than a toddler. She wears size 2T clothes and size 7 or 7 1/2 shoes. 2T things are starting to get too short for her, but 3T is mostly still too big.

Schedule: Pita is still on a great schedule. She goes to bed at 8:00 each night, and gets up around 7 in the morning. When she wakes up in the morning, she just lies quietly in bed until someone comes to get her. She still takes a long nap most afternoons too, and she needs that nap because she gets tired and cranky without it. We're lucky she's such a great sleeper.

Speech and Language: Pita often talks very much like an adult. She says things that are so surprising to hear coming from a three-year-old. Her vocabulary and grammar are amazing. She is doing so much with language that I'm not even sure what to say about it. I did write down one thing she said the other day because it was so cute, and the way she phrased it was definitely not typical for an almost three-year-old. Celia wanted Chris to play trains with her, and she came up to me and said: "I was just sitting there and I thought to myself I was lonely because Daddy wasn't pushing the train." She is so funny sometimes, but I have to keep a straight face because to her she's just talking normally. She doesn't know it isn't normal for a tiny little kid to say things like "I thought to myself". She was also asking the other day if her friend Jack was coming to her party, and then she said "What do you think he'll wear? Maybe a dress or a suit!"

Cognitive/Play: Cognitively, Celia is developing a better sense of time, knows the four seasons, understands the days of the week and knows what we do on different days, and I have started to introduce the calendar to her. She knows her birthday and our address. She knows all upper and lowercase letters, words that start with some of them, and some of the sounds the letters make. She counts very well and is getting better at identifying numbers 1-10. She spends a lot of time asking "why". She has a great sense of humor and is always making up silly songs and funny words. We have a couple of family jokes that she really "gets", and she'll use them sometimes. Celia spends most of her play time coloring or doing art projects, or pretending. She hardly ever uses toys for what they were meant because she's busy coming up with new ways to use them or pretending they're other things. She likes playing school, hospital, shopping, and likes pretending to be the mommy and leaving me or Chris at daycare. When we're playing, she will say "I'm the Mommy and you're the Honey". She also really likes to build with her big bricks and Legos, and likes playing with her train set. She loves being read to, and we still spend about an hour a day reading to her- before her nap, and at bedtime. Celia also loves watching tv, and would definitely watch too much if we didn't limit it. The shows she watches are very limited though- only PBS shows that are appropriate for her. She loves Super Why and Caillou. She really enjoys fairy tales, and I think that this year we will slowly start introducing some Disney movies to her. I'm not crazy about her spending long periods of time in front of the tv, so I will watch them with her and we'll talk about them. Recently I let her watch her first movie, Mary Poppins. We made an event out of it, making popcorn and hot chocolate. She needed me to sit and explain parts of the movie to her, which was good because then she wasn't mindlessly watching television but really was understanding the story.

Social/Emotional/Behavioral: Celia does well playing with other children. She is very social and really enjoys her little friends. She's generally very easy going and plays well with friends, but there are times at daycare when I've seen her get frustrated with younger kids or kids her age who try to take toys or can't really play or communicate on Celia's level. There are younger kids who are bigger than she is, and she doesn't always understand that although they're bigger they're not quite at her level yet. I've noticed that she likes playing with older kids a lot. They're more responsive and social. Celia has also had her very first heartbreak, I think. She talks a lot about her friend Jack, who used to be her best friend at daycare, and how much she misses him because he doesn't come anymore.

Pita is still a very well-adjusted little girl. She takes almost everything in stride. I haven't written about it yet, but she had to go to the emergency room, rode in an ambulance, and spent the night in the hospital recently and she just accepted it all like it was no big deal! She was the same with her birthday party yesterday. It was her first "real" party with non-family members and there were quite a few people, but she wasn't overwhelmed at all. She had the best time. She is still having a hard time with me, misbehaving and getting wild when I have to take care of Henry and can't give her enough attention. I think she has a bit of a love/hate relationship with me right now. She gives me a really hard time, but only because she loves me and wants me to herself. At least that's what I tell myself... There have been rough days when I've said to Chris "She hates me!" Otherwise, she's very well behaved. She's very easy to take places because she always behaves well in public. Even on a difficult day at home, I know I can just take her out for a while and her behavior will improve.

Motor Skills: Celia can use scissors correctly with a little help. She loves coloring and drawing. She can write some letters. She is good at jumping and climbing. Pita likes to do "tricks"that involve climbing on furniture, jumping, balancing, etcetera. The climbing is getting a little out of control because Celia also likes to do things by herself and has taken to moving chairs and other objects around to climb on so she can reach things. I've started removing sharp objects, medications, and the like from places she can now climb to and reach.

Self Help: Celia can dress and undress herself, needing a little help with her shirts and socks. Each night she likes to pick out her clothes for the next day. She can use the bathroom and wash her hands independently, but I like to help her because getting on and off the big toilet is tricky even with her potty seat on top. She still wears a pull-up at night time. I think I'll probably have to just put her in underwear and expect some accidents in order to get her out of them. I have a feeling she goes in the pull-up just because she can, and that if we took them away she might be able to stay dry all night. For now we'll keep things as they are, until Henry is in his crib and sleeping through the night. I don't need more than one child up at night right now!

I can't believe I have a three-year-old! It's so much fun to watch her grow and change, but also bittersweet. I wish she could always be my baby, but the next three years will be just as fun as the last and I can't wait to see what kind of girl she grows into.