There is no better time to start your blog than after one of
“those days.” There is very little
positive I can pull from today. They
were just “off” and to put the icing on the cake I was attempting to get them
to use the potty all day – we had one success each and a whole lot of laundry
to show for it. Tomorrow is another day
and I am hoping that after a night of sleep all three of us will be fresh for
tomorrow’s attempts. Maybe I should have
pushed the potty training sooner – before they reached the feisty age of
three. It may not have worked then
either though, so I can only push on… It has brought on some interesting
conversations though. Landon and I had
to have an anatomy lesson when he questioned if the “water” came from a hole in
his foot because he was standing in a puddle.
We took them to their 3 year check up this week. Landon is 3 feet tall and weighs 28.2 pounds,
so he has grown three inches since last year and has gained 4 pounds. Riley is 3’1” and weighs 31.8 pounds, she has
grown almost 3 inches as well and has gained almost 6 pounds. We were given a take home sheet entitled
“Normal Development: 3 Years Old” and after careful review my children are
“normal.” They can” jump, gallop, walk on tiptoes, and walk backwards for long
distances”. Walking backward is a favorite for Riley, she likes to walk ahead
of you and direct you like you are the plane she is landing. They are both “showing improvement with
crayons” and Riley was able to almost stay in the lines today – she gets
frustrated easily though when she feels she has messed up. I think they have both covered the “tests
limits constantly” quite nicely as well as the “quarrels with other
children.” Without counting, I would
say they do “speak about 1000 words.”
They have started to “use pronouns” but 99% of the time they use the
wrong one. They both “love to learn
short rhymes” and enjoying “imaginative or imitative play” is a daily favorite
for them. Riley has let me dress her up
as a princess a few times and most of the day, every single day, she is
pretending to be a puppy- crawling on all fours, picking things up in her
mouth, and licking my face. Landon
prefers to dress as either a fireman or a policeman.
Landon continues to be my emotional one. He has developed this new habit of wanting to
hold on to my hand while we are riding in the car – it is cute, except it about
throws my arm out of socket. He wants to
be held and carried. He asks to kiss me
on the face and wants more hugs and kisses at bedtime. He loves when we play with him and make up
stories with his Rescue Bots and buildings, but he is also content to play by
himself and manages some pretty elaborate conversations. He loves to talk and laugh and his smile
begins conversations with strangers. He
is a bit of a picky eater and doesn’t eat many fruits or vegetables and prefers
to snack all day. He likes the Special K
crisp cookies (“white cookies”), fruit snacks, and applesauce pouches. He will eat a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich at any time of the day. His
reflux is doing well and the doctor noted the improvement at his last
appointment. There is some concern with
him having larger than normal tonsils, but hopefully that is something we can
continue to monitor and will not require surgery. He plays with his Rescue Bots daily and
creates elaborate stories with them. He
loves fire trucks and anything having to do with firemen. He helps me to pick up the toys and prefers
for his toys to be “in order” and has recently been lining them up by
size. He likes things to be a certain
way and prefers his routine, he has been known to have some meltdowns when the
routine is off or something is different (ie mommy driving daddy’s car). I can see a lot of my personality in Landon,
maybe that is why he is so attached to me.
Riley is busy. She is
much less content to play by herself and wants Landon or myself to play with
her most of the time. She is also
usually the one that is about 6 inches from me at all times and most often
wants to play from the comfort of my lap.
Riley did manage to have her first trip to the dentist on Friday. She was running through the hall on Thursday
and fell face forward. I didn’t think
much about it until Friday when she started screaming after she tried to bite
into an apple and I felt the loose front tooth! I had a moment of panic and a
call to The Hubby and we decided to take her to a dentist. She did pretty well considering it was her
first time – we go back in two weeks for a follow up and to have her first
official cleaning. We just have to keep
an eye on it and look for some color changes and hope that we can avoid any
further damage. She is very busy so I am
pretty sure it will not be our last emergency trip to a doctor/dentist. Riley loves to play with her brother’s cars
and trucks and has recently started playing some with baby dolls – she still
much prefers those traditional “boy toys” – unless it is a stuffed dog. We have developed a pretty massive collection
of stuffed dogs. She loves to watch
Rescue Bots, Mickey Mouse, and George.
She brings me MANY books a day to read and will even “read” them to
herself. She loves to sing and dance and
I can often hear her singing to herself – sometimes it appears to be songs she
has made up, but she gets embarrassed when I ask about it and stops
singing. Her main food of choice continues
to be cheese and she will literally ask me for it as soon as I get out of bed
in the morning. She also loves
applesauce, mac n cheese, fruit snacks, and pudding. She will eat a little bit of anything and
everything really – even vegetables.
Riley has also effectively given up on a nap and will only nap about
twice a week, which can make for a very exhausted mommy some days.
We had a few adventures this past month. We went to the aquarium as a family and then
spent the afternoon playing 25 cent video games. I took them to see their first movie, Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs, and they loved it! They were so excited to sit in
the big comfy seats and eat their snacks.
We went to Discovery Place Kids as well as Discovery Place. They even had a daddy day at Discovery Place
Kids. We have been to the Build and Grow
workshops. We went to a birthday party
at a gymnastics studio and the kids had a blast trying out all of the
equipment. The kids have also been to a
lot of places in their imagination this month as they have pretended to be
Minnie Mouse, princesses, policemen, and firemen to name a few. They certainly keep us busy and we keep them
busy in return. I am going to start
school again with them next month and I am excited with the lesson plans I have
created! More on that later, but for now – pictures. n
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| Loved the chance to play games. |
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| Riley in a nutshell |
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| Then there is Landon |
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| Testing out the heels |
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| Let it go! |
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| Roofing is very entertaining |
