My 3-year old

Ok, so I need to write about my newly minted 3 year old. 

Let's start with the stats.  

Abs went to the doctor yesterday and weighed in at 34lbs and 37 inches tall.  I haven't charted that yet, but I'm fairly certain that's pretty average for her age.  The doctor asked me how many words she says and I laughed.  She's always been a verbal child, and that hasn't slowed down at all. 

This whole 3-year old thing.  I think my friend Kathy put it best when she said that 3 just fits.  I couldn't believe she was a year old.  I couldn't imagine her being 2.  But, 3?  Yeah - she is totally 3.  She doesn't seem like a baby, she doesn't seem older. It's just where she's supposed to be.  

Let's see.  What about Abby now? She asks more questions now than ever.  She has shifted from taking in the world around her to exploring the world around her.  If she hears me talking and doesn't know a word, she'll stop me and ask "Mommy, what does 'treadmill' mean?" She's just as much of a little sponge than ever.

For example.  Yesterday morning, I prepped the cupcakes for baking.  I noticed the oven was taking a long time to preheat and when I opened it, it was cold.  Abby saw me tinkering with it and came over and asked in her sing-songy bouncy voice "whatcha doin' mommy?"  So I told her that the oven was broken.  She says "Oh.  Maybe we can call Mr. Richard to come an fix it"  Richard is our landlord.  I told her that I thought that was a good idea and I called him.  When I got off the phone, Abby asked me if he was going to come fix the stove, I told her yes and she says, "ok, mom, I'll start cweaning up.  We need to cwean before Mr. Wichard gets here."  Ha.  I mean, she's obviously, NEVER heard me say that before. 

They did fix the stove, but not in time for me to make cupcakes, so a store bought cake it was for Abby's party.  Which was fine.  

Moving on.  Abby has more elaborate pretend play now. She's so funny.  She's animated and exaggerated.  Her facial expressions are often one click more expressive than they need to be.  Kyle and I got Abby a little train track set.  Her response upon opening it was appropriate and extremely gratifying.  She was so excited about it.  We let her stay up an hour past bedtime to play with her trains.  The whole time, she was making up stories and plots and building characters and relationships with her new trains.  We all just sat there and listened to her chatter on and on, "Oh, what?  You already picked up the freight?  But I thought *I* was going to get that freight.  Oh, ok, you can take it to the stationmaster then.  Why, thank you.  Have you seen my brother car?  He's over there. Beep Beep!  Hi trains, it's me, car!  How are you doing today?  Well, we're fine thank you.  Thomas is taking the freight to the stationmaster.  I think I need a new coupling, I'm going to go get checked..."  on and on and on.

It's one of my favorite things ever.  To just sit and listen to her ongoing imagination. 

This picture pretty much sums up Abby

Okay.  Other Abby things.

She eats well.  I really can't think of much food she doesn't like.  She's still not big on chicken, but she'll eat it more than she used to.  I'm not sure I can pinpoint her favorite foods, but some of her most common choices are: hummus on a tortilla, hot dogs, green beans, bananas, apples, applesauce, pasta (with sprinkle cheese, of course).  She still loves olives and tomatoes - those might be favorites, actually.  She drinks milk with meals and water in between.  She's had juice a few times on special occasions, but 99.9% of the time, she's still on milk or water.

We can jump from food to potty training, right?

We started training on Thanksgiving.  She had 3 or 4 accidents in the days that followed, and hasn't had any since then.  I am in disbelief how quickly she's adapted.  She still wears diapers for nap times and bed times. But, if she's awake and wearing underwear - she has a 100% accuracy rate going right now, or has since about day 3 of training.  She is not ready to be sleep trained yet, and that may be a while off.  But, I'm super proud of her.  She's super proud of herself, too.

She's still taking naps, and still needs them.  She doesn't usually fight us about them.  Sometimes she likes to stall bedtime, but she's usually not too bad.

At this age, she loves projects, she loves coloring and crafts and baking and absolutely anything where she can help.  She still loves cleaning and organizing and is always rearranging things or packing things up into new places.  She loves to dance.  She loves to be chased and tickled and hugged.

She's a little ball of energy.

I'm out of time, but this will do for now.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Abigail.  We all love you so very much.