Parenthood - 2012-08-28 3.5 years with a bear

August 28, 2012

At three and a half, Elizabeth weighs 13.15 kg (29 lbs). That puts her almost on par with her Uncle Chris when he was one! She's approximately 95.25cm (37.5") tall.

She's very keen to start school, but wants to bring Mommy or Daddy so they can "watch her for a very long time". She's much better at playing by herself, and even will sometimes play happily in the basement while we do other things on the first floor. Crafts, cars, cooking, trains and BABIES all still very popular. She loves singing, nursery rhymes, stories and writing letters.

Although she has a hard time without an afternoon nap, it's rare that she'll take one. Instead she prefers to wriggle quietly in bed for three quarters of an hour. Mommy rarely agrees to nap too, mostly because it tends to end with sleeping Mommy being gently tapped awake. "Mommy, are you wakeable yet?" loudly whispers the toddler. "I think it must be wake up time!"

After she turned three, she started to tell us that she'd stop nursing "when I'm four". I first noticed that she didn't want to nurse for comfort anymore when she was stung by those wasps, and by cottage time she'd pretty much dropped nursing when she first woke up, leaving only a rather sporadic nap time session. I *think* she has now stopped entirely.

She's become much more acrobatic and confident, though new situations can see her revert to a mute cling-a-saurus. She's not very adventurous around slides until she's sure it's not faster than she can safely descend by herself (and won't "static" her). She's developed a fear of the dark. There might be alligators or wolves waiting out of sight to gobble her up, you know. She loves jumping and hopping on one foot or another. It's more fun with an audience who can watch "the biggest jump you ever saw". Biking is still extremely popular. She's fast enough now that Mommy can bike beside her. Did I mention she can put her whole head entirely under water?

She's more insistent about getting her point across and gets very frustrated if adults don't listen, or worse, try to guess what she's saying in order to speed up the story. She does like to tell very elaborate stories - nothing wrong with her imagination!!! She likes to ask if her story was "amazing" or "prising" (aka surprising). Frequently she ends a story by saying "and Mommy was very amused." She loves stories about fairies, goblins etc (such as Enid Blyton's Wishing Chair series), but can get very worked up about stories that don't make sense. Flying chairs - no problem. A house that has chocolate milk coming out of the taps? Great agitation. "But MOOOOMMMY - taps are SUPPOSED to have WATER". We tell her it's just for pretend, but it doesn't help. It's too "silly". Mind you, occasionally she has the same reaction to ordinary facts. She did not at all like hearing about molten rock deep in the earth, though the idea of mountains burping smoke had some appeal... When she gets upset, she usually asks for a hug. Hugs make everything better!

We wouldn't call her a picky eater anymore. She started eating berries and all kinds of previously rejected foods - not always in great quantities, but happily and without protest. She still has some dislikes - tomatoes definitely not popular - but protests quite mildly before eating them.

She still sleeps well, but has lately been waking in the middle of the night to call for someone to replace her covers. No matter how well we cover her, she seems to kick them off early on and then gets cold. Unfortunately she doesn't like Mommy's idea that she should just wear warm "jamamas" (pyjamas) and forget about the blanket altogether. Sigh.

Still she's so much fun that we wouldn't have her any other way...

On September 19, 2012 at 05:38 pm
Grandma H. said:

Grandma is very amused!