I mentioned in the last update that we had seen an attitude starting to develop. Boy it has reared its ugly little head more than a few times again this month. I know it's all part of growing up, but sheesh it's so frustrating. I know every parent has been through it and I think it's just driving me a little crazier than it should because I'm so sleep deprived. You have mastered the art of talking back. So many times during the day you'll snap back with the opposite of what I say. Even if I say something like "Be careful, you're going to get hurt." You say, "I wanna get hurt!" back in an angry voice. I am so very thankful you are still taking naps each day because without that break in there I'm not sure I could take it! You have thrown some pretty good fits when we are leaving places too now. Not full out tantrums, but you can scream with the best of them.
But just like I mentioned last month, you then come out with the sweetest little things you say and I know you truly have a kind, sweet heart and that being three is just tough. At random times throughout the day you'll look at me and say, "I love you too!" just out of the blue. You always tell Bryce that you've missed him if he's been away napping or at church. You are great at cleaning up (most of the time) and say "yes ma'am" a ton too now. You use please and thank you without being reminded.
We took a trip to Vermont this past month and you had a such a good time. You did keep saying you wanted to come home to see Auntie Val, but I know you had fun. You loved playing at the Fun Zone. You really enjoyed the bounce houses there and loved playing mini golf. You liked it so much that we bought you a little golf set when we got back home. We also just bought you a little bowling set and you have been playing that daily. I know you're only three, but I always wonder if any of these interests you have right now will prove to be something you love doing as you get older.
While we were in Vermont, you watched the tv show The Octonauts for the first time and really started liking it. You haven't watched it here during the past week or so, but for a while you were obsessed. I printed off some Octonauts activities from Carisa's site and you LOVED those. You are getting really good at identifying coins and can tell how much each coin is worth. You also understand greater than and less than from that packet after I showed you one time.
You are so so very smart. You picked up a book from Bryce's room just the other day and read it cover to cover to me. Read it. We haven't read that book in over six months and I only had to help you with one word. You are really learning how to sound out words to read them and you can also spell some words too. You are so good at board games, but you can't play them with anyone your age because most three year olds don't understand or follow the rules and that makes you mad. You have to play by the rules (with occasional cheating at Candy Land). One of your newest favorites is to play Domino War. We put all the dominoes upside down in the middle and each draw on. The person with the most dots wins those two dominoes. It's great counting review and it's even caused you to remember some addition facts because you know 5+5=10 and 6+6=12 without counting. You are doing great at writing your first name and on the 4th of July proved me right and counted all the way to 100 by yourself. Your smarts show up in the car too because you're now interested in direction. You like watching the little compass rose on the rearview mirror and shout from your car seat, "We're going northwest, we're going east!"
I have mentioned before that you are speaking much more clearly now. We did have an incident back at the beginning of the month where I could not understand what you were saying though. It started while we were at the commissary and you said something about the race car cart you were riding in. I just sort of pretended I knew what you were saying while we were there, but then you brought it up again in the car. It sounded like you were saying, "The green car was a vegetable." I kept trying different words trying to guess what you were saying and you started crying so hard because I couldn't figure it out. I even asked you what letter the last word started with and you said, "V". We decided to just not talk about it on the ride home. Once we had been home for a bit I asked you if we could try again. You repeated it and I still couldn't figure it out. But then you said it one more time and it hit me, "The green car was available". It all made sense then because usually as we are driving to the commissary you tell me what color race car cart you want and I'll say, "We'll see if it's available". Well that day the green car was available. I just thought it was so cute that you were using such a big word and loved that you sounded it out and said it started with a "V".
You love playing rough and thankfully Daddy is home for a quite a bit longer because he's much better at that than Mommy. You love for him to wrap you up in a blanket like a taco and he even wraps you up in it and swings you all around the living room. You just laugh and laugh. You've decided that Bryce is now big enough to wrestle too. I'm sure he'll be tougher than you are. I don't think he'll have a choice. And you still love playing the iPad. Just two days ago, I printed off some tickets I made so you can earn iPad time. During the day you can choose a ticket and perform that task to earn 10 minutes of time. Some of the tasks include: writing your name, listening to a Bible story, reading a book, completing a puzzle, etc. Once you complete an activity, you know how to set the timer on the iPad and will play for your allotted time. There have still been some tears when the timer goes off, but it seems to be working pretty well. It's limiting your time on the iPad and getting you do some activities I'd like you to be working on this summer.
You're just growing up so fast and even on the not so great days, I love being your Mommy!
Love,
Mommy
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