Leah 3.0

At three:

Leah is potty trained!!!  We justbarely made it under the wire - she's been potty trained all of about four days, and is still new enough to it that she'll have an accident if we're in the middle of something overly-stimulating.

She has a pretty incredible vocabulary, and frequently says things that show a mastery of language for someone so little.  It has been a long time since she has left any words out of her sentences.  She does tack on -ed to some irregular past-tense verbs (like bited instead of bit), but there are very, very few. 

She pronounces her letters properly, although some of her Ls and Rs come out as Ws (I'm Weah Madeline!), and somewhere along the way she learned to say "dery" instead of "very." 

She recognizes several words when they are written, and recognizes all capital letters and numbers up to 10 automatically.  She also knows the sounds each letter makes (with the exception of vowels, which are tricky since they make two sounds!) and can tell you what letter a word starts with.

She loves to read, although she doesn't have a favorite book right now.  She likes "The Spirit of Christmas" (even though it's March) and "The Bear on the Motorcycle," which is a story in a children's anthology we have.  She also likes Ferdinand.

She wears size 8 shoes and all 3T clothing. 

She recently learned to jump, which was a huge accomplishment for her since she couldn't figure it out despite much effort previously.

Her hair is still wild and unfortunately curly, but now long enough for pony and pig-tails.  (WAHOO!)  She's never had a haircut since, well... she just got all that hair like yesterday.

She looooves to sing and dance. 

She can spontaneously write the letters L, M, C, O and A.  And they're legit, too.  Not perfect, but impressive considering she's just three.

She knows all her basic shapes - triangle, circle, square, rectangle, oval, and anything with more than four sides is an octagon.  She recognizes and can complete patterns. 

She is the world's best big sister. 

She is a pretty picky eater.  How I raised a picky eater, I'll never know.  Maybe it's genetic (I'm looking at you, Casey). 

She has recently begun watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and that is her new favorite show.  She still likes Caillou, VeggieTales and SuperWhy, and that's about all she is ever allowed to watch. 

She is extremely particular and slightly OCD about the way things "should" be.  If you change words in a story or song, she will call you on it.  If you mess up whatever order she has for her toys, you're sure to get an earful. 

Naps from about 12:30 to 3:00 every day (although some days those naps are a lot shorter or nonexistant, she's usually a really good sleeper). 

Goes to bed at about 8 and almost always sleeps through the night.  Recently, she has begun having bad dreams on occassion that wake her up, but they're pretty infrequent.  We've been sooooo lucky on the sleep front, I never really realized what a great sleeper she is. 

She loves to play mommy right now.  She is always changing baby's diaper, feeding her baby, pushing "him" in the stroller or shopping cart or putting him to bed.  My personal favorite is when she says that she is nursing baby, and she puts him under her shirt... heehee. 

She is so loving, so sweet and so unbelievably generous.  She loves to help, and is an amazing caretaker. 

We are so lucky that this little lady is part of our family.  We couldn't have asked for a better gal.