3 Years

Loving... Freddie.  Your absolute favorite thing in the whole wide world is your brother.  You adore him.  He's your best pal and your favorite playmate.  You love building with blocks and magna tiles.  You create complicated games of pretend and role playing always assigning someone a name, and you get quite upset if we don't call you by whatever name you've given yourself.  101 Dalmations is a favorite right now which goes along with your say "I love that dog" each time we pass a dog.

Hating... well, I am not sure of anything specific that you "hate" but you get awfully frustrated at times and clench your fists and give a scream.  I feel for you, because usually you are so frustrated with Freddie!  You also get frustrated when you're unable to execute your building designs and things come crashing down, but you do stick with it and manage to get everything just right.

Eating...  you are an awesome eater!  When you get in a picky mood it is usually because you've take a cue from Freddie.  Your teachers report that you always eat all of snack and all of your lunch.  If you don't eat its usually because you're tired or sick.

Reading...  I love seeing you tucked away in the corner of your room surrounded by stack of books.  You can spend a long time flipping through books all by yourself.  You are always tickled to visit the library and spend time on the flooring being read to.

Writing....  After Freddie signs in at preschool you go over to the table and "sign in" as well.  It won't be long before I know you'll start copying letters.  Your writing doesn't look like much but it carries meaning, so I know you are anxious to get your message out there!  You have a good grip on the pencil, just about perfect there finger grasp.

Playing with… you still love trains and cars, but you build quite a bit.  Your imaginative play incorporates all sorts of relationships and dynamics from moms and dads and babies to superheros and bad guys.  You are also getting much better at entertaining yourself without Freddie around.  You still sleep with your Teddy.



Wearing... You're size 3 or 4 in tops and bottoms, and wearing size 8.5 shoe.  You pretty much fit into all of Freddie's things.   You love your tshirts that have animals on them, especially the yellow one with the mandril.  Your soccer and gymnastics shorts are also favorites.  You are able to undress yourself and can just about get dressed all on your own.  I need to make sure your bottoms are a little easier to pull up and down because you are pretty adamant about not needing any help when you go to the bathroom, although often your undies end up bunched up in your pants.

Watching…  You do love the television, and you're not very discriminating as far as what show you want.  Typically your and Freddie each get to pick a show in the evenings but you are easily swayed by Freddie's suggestions.  Your absolute favorite movie is Toy Story.

Stalling...  Everything I request requires a "Hansie, you can come over to Mommy and do (insert request) or Mommy can come get you"  And this is always followed with "1......2......3" at which point you finally come over.  Sigh.

Curls!

Sneaking...  You're pretty honest, even when you've written on the furniture or dumped 1000 legos in the tub.

Talking about...  Lordy, child, you can TALK!  I daresay you talk more than your brother.  I also think your vocabulary at 3 may be larger the Freddie's vocabulary at 3.  Your pronunciation is of things is still very much 3 but you have quite the language skills.  Right now I hope you always use a T sound in place of the C sound...I love hearing that you're "told" and need to "tuddle" under the blanket with me.  You are finally talking lots at school, and talking lots about school at the end of the day.  You are still pretty shy so strangers don't have any idea that you're quite the talker.  Sometimes you give others the response you expect to have from your stories or explanations…Say Wow, Mom….Say Oh, Mom.  

Singing...  I feel a little guilty that I didn't sing to you as much as I did Freddie so you don't know as many songs, but you do sing along with songs on the radio.  It is actually pretty impressive that you recognize so many songs on the radio.  Dancing is preferred to singing though, and you are not shy about boogying.

Feelings about your family...  I love you, Mama.  I love you and Freddie and Dada as bug as the world.  Sweetest sounds ever is hearing you say that out of the blue.  You do love us, and are so affectionate with all of us.  I'll also say that you get pretty angry, frustrated, and emotional with the three of us as well.  It's certainly hard to be the youngest, and I try to remind myself of that, and remind your brother of that.

Working on... I see you working on being a stronger climber and stronger swimmer.  Both of those seem to interest you quite a bit and you really push yourself physically when climbing or swimming.  I'd like to see you push yourself a bit more on your bike, but something tells me we'll be ditching the balance bike and just getting you a bike with training wheels as you cannot bare to lag so far behind Freddie while you learn to coast along on a balance bike.  You'll always choose the scooter because you can keep up with the fastest kids on your scooter.

You're THREE, my love, and I can hardly believe it.  We love each and every little thing about you.  I love you BIG as the WORLD.