ZJ is 3 years old!

10.6.14

ZJ weighs 28.5 pounds and is just over 36.25 inches tall. She wears mostly 2t clothes and size 7 shoes.

ZJ still loves puzzles and can complete our 48 piece puzzles on her own. She loves to read and will go through books on her own for great lengths of time or request that we read to her. She can identify most letters and knows several letter sounds. She likes to pretend to read since watching her brother read the last few months. She frequently requests to paint but isn’t into coloring. She likes to pretend to be robots, super heroes, bats and pirates. She loves playing with scoops in water or beads or anything small. She loved the pool this summer and towards the end of summer she decided she could swim even though she couldn’t and would yell for me to let her go. If I did she would swallow water and sink. This would go on until she was on the verge of being sick from drinking so much water.

ZJ says several funny sounding things such as calling marbles “marbables” and pajamas “toojamas.” She often uses an “f” instead of an “s” like calling a spoon a “foon.” She likes to tell us what she’s doing or thinking followed by “that’s what,” even if we didn’t inquire. She frequently yells “no, myself” when she wants to do something on her own. She uses the word “yes” unnecessarily all of the time. She’ll say “I yes want to go outside.”

ZJ has really come out of her shyness in the last few months. She no longer seems to fear men in general. She warms up to people very quickly and will speak to people she doesn’t know well. Everyone she meets seems to love her.

Her new schedule, as of the end of August, is to get up and ready quickly and ride in the stroller for the 10 minute walk to IJ’s school. Then we either get him settled, read a book and leave or stay to help in his class. Usually once or twice a week we stay and she gets to play with the toys in his class or read or draw/cut with paper. She loves being in his class and has bonded with his teacher who is quite fond of her too.

ZJ is participating in her first organized activity without me. She started soccer at the park by our house and she loves it. She has practice every Wednesday afternoon with her coach and the other 2 and 3 year olds. She stays on task quite well and listens to her coach. She doesn’t pay much attention to the other kids.

At the end of July I stopped putting ZJ in any diapers except for at night. I thought this was necessary to speed up the process of getting her fully using the toilet. She would still have occasional pees in her diaper and I was tired of taking them on and off for frequent potty use. She does well with peeing and some days pees in her underwear a few times (usually just a little) and some days not at all. The problem is she still refuses to poop on the toilet. She’s been given several incentives but still refuses. She sometimes wakes dry in the morning but still wears a night diaper.

She’s been going to sleep in her room for about 5 months now and is completely used to that. She still has never gone to sleep on her own. She occasionally sleeps through till early morning (5 /6 am) but usually wakes between 10 and 2 and yells for us. We put her in our bed and she goes right back to sleep. She’s been waking early for a while but seems to be adjusting to our new school schedule and is waking between 6 and 6:30 am.

She was having about once monthly colds over the summer but then when IJ started school they both were having back to back illnesses. We’ve had a couple healthy weeks now so I’m hoping we’re over it. She kept getting congested and fevers over and over again. This has been ZJ’s first year without hospitalizations.

3rd year at a glance (see last year's here).