Month 36: Happy Third Birthday!

Happy Third Birthday!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Our birthday theme was Pirates (read daily doses here)!   This will be the last year I pick her party theme and we are going to give her a small allowance of fifty cents a week (she likes coin operated rides).

Three years.   How can it be?   I feel like I’ve documented and made note of every moment, treasured it, and squeezed it and yet I feel like I’m barely hanging on to the tail of a time comet.

Homemade Treasure Map invites

Itty Bitty is leaving her toddlerhood behind and moving towards childhood — what most USA parents call pre-school age.   There are still glimpses of baby now and then in a Big Cry or sleepy plea for Mah-mees (nursing).   We nurse every night before bed and it saddened me that I had to all but eliminate daytime nursing to rare occasions because of latch pain and the feelings of aversion unless I am engorged.    I hope Itty Bitty remembers the comfort and not the sad denials.

Public toilets with children in mind have step stools to facilitate autonomy.

Itty Bitty has had no potty incidences this month, she requires no toilet insert or step stool, and most of the time she cleans herself and asks for assistance for a messy output.   She’s used the little potty in an “Peemergency” once or twice, but looks quite ridiculous with her knees practically hitting her chin.    Public toilets still require help as the toilets are set up quite high and are occasionally of questionable cleanliness.    Itty Bitty also likes to cue her brother, though most often he gets too excited in her presence and won’t finish a pee!

There’s been a renewed resurgence in learning songs, role play with My Lttle Pony, interest in friends by name, and she loves her new play kitchen.  We’ve spent more time on counting and numbers, crafts, reading, and art.   Itty Bitty took time to learn her new age and work her fingers to make three (American folks don’t use the thumb to indicate three).   She also knows her last name, address, her parents’ names, and her birth date (we add new personal info as she commits the others to memory).   Itty Bitty still has trouble with personal boundaries, not understanding why others do not accept hugs or why others dislike physical play.  We’ve also seen the growing territorial behavior with communal toys and disinterest in taking turns, but at the same time a slowly growing trend of cooperative play rather that “you do it this way not that way” play.   Itty Bitty isalso learning that baby brother has a voice and is not afraid to scream and cry if she takes a toy away from him and “trades” don’t always appease.

It’s harder than it seems!

When her brother was born in February, Itty Bitty suddenly sprouted a halo of hair and she looks so toddler-like in those pictures, but now she has lankier limbs and her face has changed.   At the beginning of summer Itty Bitty was a half inch or inch short of reaching tricycle pedals, and now at the end of the season she is just the right size.  We haven’t tried her on the Radio Flyer Big Wheel yet, but she still might be a hair too short.   We tend to buy her things older than recommended age, but you never know what they can do unless the opportunity is there.

Did I mention Itty Bitty’s non-stop conversational chatter and the repetition of phrases?   Did I mention Itty Bitty’s non-stop conversational chatter and the repetition of phrases?  Did I mention Itty Bitty’s non-stop conversational chatter and the repetition of phrases?   Did I mention Itty Bitty’s non-stop conversational chatter and the repetition of phrases?

Oh and making unnecessary noise when I or her brother are trying to nap!

Happiness.

Happy Birthday Itty Bitty.  May your adventurous, inquisitive, sociable, determined, odd-bird personality mature and thrive.      When you are grown with your own Itty Bitty I hope you embrace her every mismatched ensemble, backwards shoe, inside out shirt, dirt smeared face, puzzle cookie offering, and cold nose, sticky lipped kiss.  And may her 30lb self step on your toe every day.

Phrases of the Month:

I love my brudder. (I love my brother.)
The baby crying, give him you moolk. (The baby is crying, give him your milk!)
Is it my birthday?
But he likes it {baby peeking out of the square storage ottoman}, Momma, I pud him innit.

 

Visit Brother’s Blog:  Pottytunities for Two