Claire had her 3 year old well check on Friday and weighed 33lbs and was in the 74th percentile for her weight. She was 37 inches tall and in the 48th percentile for her height. She had a great check-up and we we're thankful for our healthy little 3 year old.
Sleeping:
Claire sleeps about 10 - 11 hours a night. We put her to bed between 7:30 and 8 and she usually sleeps until about 7. She doesn't nap and hasn't napped regularly since sometime around summer. She used to fall asleep in the car line while waiting to pick Emily up (would sleep for about 10-15 mins), but now she doesn't do that often either. She will still nap maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks and on those days bedtime is rough. She will take FOREVER and a day to fall asleep. She sometimes has her "Lala" and blanket in her bed with her, but really doesn't care about having anything to sleep with (very different from E and H). She often (more often than not) wakes up twice a night and always comes to me (Hannah always goes to her Daddy). The first time she wakes up I usually take her to the potty and then walk her back to bed, kiss her forehead and then can go back to my bed. The second time (almost always 3 or 4 hours later) she wakes me up and I just walk her back to bed and she usually goes right back to sleep. I would prefer to be able to sleep through the night, but at least both times are quick. It's interesting...she usually wakes me up 0 times or 2 times....never just once. Since she doesn't nap during the day she usually goes to sleep fairly easily. She often falls asleep while Bert is reading them a chapter from the Chronicles of Narnia book. She sleeps in her toddler bed and shares a room with Emily and Hannah. We'll move her to Abby's room once Abby gets to be about 2, but for now Abby is more on her own schedule so Claire gets to share with her big sisters.
Eating:
Claire is a good little eater. She's not overly picky but does have to be encouraged to take bites. She eats a yogurt and dry cereal in the mornings (refuses milk in her cereal). For lunch she usually eats a sandwich, cheese and fruit. For dinner she eats whatever we are eating. Her favorite fruit is bananas although I can't think of a fruit she doesn't like. She likes most vegetables. She's a slow eater unless she's eating a banana or something else she LOVES and we have gotten in a bad habit of "helping" her. We'll actually put the food on the fork and feed her a bite. She can totally feed herself and use the utensils herself (and does often), but we may be there all night/or she may just not eat it at all. It's the quickest way to get the meal finished, but we totally need to break this habit.
Talking:
I LOVE hearing her talk. It's hands down my favorite part about this age. I could listen to her talk all day long. I love that she throws w's in random words and switches out certain letters with other letters. She often replaces "I" with "my"....."my coming too!!" I understand most everything she is saying but sometimes when I am having trouble understanding a certain phrase she gets very frustrated. She'll say "My fiwisty" for "I'm thirsty." She forgoes the "t" sound and says "dis" for "this." She says "wight dere" for "right there" and replaces "for" with "por".... "will you get dat por me?" One of her favorite phrases is "I know dat!" I've taken many many videos of her sitting and talking to me about something...anything so that I could remember how cute her little voice was at this age. I loved hearing Emily and Hannah talk at this age too, but I think it didn't register with me how fast it passes so I've done a much better job just enjoying this stage and also taking video for when my memory needs a refresher.
A few of my favorite things about our 3 year old:
- She started calling me "Mommy-gail" and cracks up every time she says it. I guess she combined my name with Abigail's but I love how cute she is when she says it.
-She doesn't care for milk although she will drink some when encouraged.
-Her favorite show is "trawberry torcake." (Leaves off the "s" at the beginning of each word.)
-Her favorite books are any "Olivia" book.
-She has been fully potty trained during the day and night since last fall, although she did have a couple random accidents (during the day) a couple weekends ago. She wore Pull Ups at night for the first month after we potty trained, but hasn't since the beginning of September and hasn't had a night time accident yet.
-She loves riding in Daddy's car and thinks it is the biggest treat.
-Her favorite shoes are her butterfly boots which are brown with a colorful butterfly on the front. She's worn them out this winter, but still wants to wear them any chance she gets.
-Claire's Sunday school teacher is Mrs. Dale and Claire often draws her pictures or just talks about her. We usually pray for E and H's teachers on the way to school each morning and when Claire is with us she will often say "we need to pwray for Ms. Dale too!"
-Her favorite thing to do inside is color, play with the doll house, or sit in someones lap and have them read her a book. Her favorite outside activities are jumping on the trampoline and playing in the dirt.
-She calls scissors, "paypah sizzors" for "paper scissors."
-Claire especially loves to help put away groceries!
-Just this afternoon I was telling Bert that we needed to buy more diapers for Abby. I knew that I didn't have any more diapers her size under the crib so I went to the diaper bag to get one out. After I started changing her diaper Claire walked up with some size 6 diapers (Abs wears size 3) and said "here you go." She didn't know they were the wrong size and I thought it was so sweet that she heard me say I needed something and she wanted to help me without me even asking her to.
-These cupcake pajamas and easily her favorites. If they are clean and in her drawer then they get put on.
-She is shy. When people try to talk to her she often grunts and turns her face into my leg instead of answering, which can come across as unfriendly. Something we're working on.
-At lunch one day Emily asked Claire if she could say a certain word. I can't remember the word but it was something like "responsible." Claire thought about her question for a second and then said "No, but I can say....POOPY!!! Baahahahahaha!!!" They all three died laughing and it cracked me up too that the 2 year old (at the time) thought it was hilarious to make a poopy joke.
-Her favorite snack is "wainbow masmellows." She gets so excited every time she gets them.
-I had just finished feeding Abby and was trying to get the kids out the door to go pick up Emily from school. Claire had not taken a nap (rarely does) and said grumpily as I was trying to put her coat on. "My firwsty, my ti-ed, my hun-gy too."
-Claire and Hannah got into a disagreement last week about if Claire "knows everything." Hannah said she does not and Claire insisted that she does. It was funny to listen to the 3 year old argue that she does, in fact, know everything.
-She likes to play dress up some but not nearly as much as Hannah did at this age. I love that they have different likes and dislikes.
-I often call her "Claire Bear." Bert calls her "CK" a lot of the time. And she still calls herself "Care" or "KK."
-She likes to pick out her own clothes right down to her socks and shoes.
Claire, we love you so much! We're thankful for your fun, spunky, curious and sweet personality. You are a gift and a joy. We pray regularly that you would one day put your trust in Jesus, and your Daddy and I pray that we would point you to Him by our words and actions. We are overflowing with thankfulness to God for blessing us with you. Happy 3rd birthday, Sunshine!
