Abby - 3 years old

The baby of our babies turned 3 years old on March 6th!  Three years old is such a precious age and we're enjoying it so much!  Sometimes Bert and I just smile and shake our heads at how adorable she is.  Now don't get me wrong, she's not always adorable....sometimes she's not, but we wouldn't trade her!

I took Abby to her 3-year well check last Thursday and she got a great report!  She was 38 inches tall and in the 57th percentile for height, she weighed 31 lbs and 15 oz and was in the 57th percentile for weight.  She seems like a little bitty thing to me, but apparently she's right on track.  

A few of my favorite things about our 3 year old: 

-She likes to pick out her own clothes, right down to her pajamas and panties. 

-We potty trained her last November and she hasn't looked back.  She only wore pull ups at night for about a month or two (until we moved her to the toddler bed) and I can only remember one time since then that she woke up wet in the middle of the night.  

-If you had asked me 4 months ago I would have said she is SO great at entertaining herself, but that is no longer the case. Sometime over the last few months she's decided that it's not fun to play without her sisters and she is downright whiny when she doesn't have a sister to play with. Hopefully she'll adjust when Claire goes to kindergarten in the fall. 

-I'm in a mom's group on Wednesday mornings and she gets to go to "school" from 9:00-11:00. She LOVES it and talks about it all week. Next year she'll be in preschool on Monday and Tuesday mornings from 8:30-11:30 and she's already so excited about going to "Claire's school."  

-She loves to make people laugh. The girls love getting her to say "Mama Mia" or other phrases.  Abby says it in a really funny voice that makes her sisters fall on the ground laughing so Abby will just keep doing it. Emily's said she wants to bring Abby to school with her so that she can charge her friends money to hear Abby say certain phrases.  She's says they'll pay! Ha!  

-Abby sleeps around 11 hours a night. We put her to bed between 7:30-8:00 and she sleeps until about 7:00am.  She doesn't nap and hasn't for a long time.  She doesn't even fall asleep in the car line or driving her sisters around in the afternoon.  She goes to sleep easily and quickly.  Bert and I say Abby and Emily are our early birds (wake up smiling and bee-bopping through the house) and Hannah and Claire are our night owls (they're wide awake at night and they wake up in the morning dragging).  Abby almost never wakes up in the middle of the night (she's maybe done it one time in the last 3 months). 

-Abby loves sharing a room with Claire! We usually put Abby to bed first, while Claire is finishing getting ready in hopes that she will be asleep before Claire even gets in there.  It works some of the time, but she prefers for Claire to be in there with her.  

-When you ask her to do something (like take her shirt off) and she doesn't think she can do it she'll say "but I don't how know!!" It's too cute! 

-Abby's a good eater.  She doesn't care for black-eyed peas, lima beans, squash/zucchini, raw carrots, mushrooms, and bell pepper, but I can't think of much else that she doesn't like.  She does have to be encouraged to take bites (as in, I often put the bite in her mouth, even though she is more than capable to do it herself), which makes meal times less than great sometimes, but at least she eats it eventually.  She eats yogurt and cereal in the morning, usually a sandwich, banana and cheese stick for lunch, and whatever we're eating for dinner.  

-I love hearing her talk!  Three year old chatter is the cutest! Our pediatrician said she thought she could understand about 50 percent of what she was saying, which was surprising to me.  I do "interpret" for her a good bit, but I think most people can understand most of what she says (I would think the percentage would be closer to 75% for the untrained ear). 

-She's not a good water drinker.  She likes milk and juice and I do make her drink water throughout the day, but it would probably be easier to pull her teeth.  

-She LOVES to be read to.  I seriously think she would sit in my lap and let me read to her all day.  The ladies in the nursery at church tell me often how much she loves for them to read to her.  Sweet girl! 

-She loves riding in Daddy's truck (along with her sisters)! 

-She says "short leebes" for short sleeves.  

-She loves coloring, riding her balance bike, having books read to her, playing on the swing set, and playing with her sisters.  

-She's a bit clumsy.  She often falls when she's playing at church or with her sisters, but some of that I think is just trying to keep up with them.

-She had an accident on her scooter last summer and we thought she might loose her front tooth.  Thankfully, so far that tooth is still hanging in there and looking great!  

-She's started dealing with some car sickness as of last October. I didn't realize exactly what it was for a few months, but now that we know we're doing lots of things to try to prevent her from getting car sick. She wears acupressure bands every time she rides in the car, we keep the air blowing on her at all times (even in the winter....her sisters would often complain of being cold, but I told them to just put on a coat!), and we don't let her look down at anything in her lap. I also talk to her a lot on car rides. It will be easier when she can tell me when she's about to get sick, right now it's still a guessing game, and not a fun one. I do feel like we're in a better place with this though than we were 2 months ago, so I'm thankful for that. 

-She likes to be in charge even at such a young age. Her sister's have complained that "Abby always has to be the teacher." Ha! She definitely doesn't let anyone run over her.  

-She's independent and likes to do things like putting her shoes on by herself.  

-When you ask her her favorite color she says "light pink and dark pink." And when you ask her her name she often says "Abby and Abigail!" 

-Her sisters don't like to hear her fuss/cry and they probably give in to her too much and too easily.  

-Abby loves to dress up and her favorite dress up clothes are Emily and Hannah's old dance recital costumes, in fact, I literally just helped her put one on 2 minutes ago.  

-She wants to do anything and everything her sisters do and doesn't appreciate being told she can't.  

-She often asks if she can pray too at meal times or when we're taking her sisters to school.  She says the sweetest prayers and usually thanks God for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  

-Even still, she's been known to color on things that are not paper (table, wall, door, couch).  I'm not even sure why.  She knows she's not supposed to and will get a consequence, but it's like she gets gets a marker or crayon in her hand, and everything else becomes a blank canvas!

-She has a tendency to involuntarily hold her breath when she gets hurt (even a little bit) and has passed out from holding her breath a few times over the last couple years. It's terrifying (for me), but apparently not a big deal at all. Since we realized she was doing this we've started blowing in her face when she starts holding her breath and that seems to be helping. She hasn't passed out from an injury in almost a year although she has come really close several times in the last few months.  

-Her nicknames are Abby Doodle (me), Doodle Poodle (me), and The Gail Snail (Bert). (Bert's insert: She probably won't let me keep calling her this too much longer!)