Three

Our sweet Lucy turned three! She had a great birthday party with some wonderful people! We tried to keep it small and simple this year. For decorations I just printed up some photos of Lucy throughout the year and taped them up with some pretty tape. We had a plain white cake from the Orting Bakery (it was so yummy). We had our standard party game of "Draw on the Lucy face" which always has fun results. Lucy is fond of one of the drawing where she has bangs and dark hair; every time she see it she says, "I look like grandma."

 

We went to see Dr. K for Lucy's three year check up and for the first time ever her height and weight percentiles increased. They just went up the tiniest bit, but Dr. K was pretty happy. Sweet girl measured in at...

24 pounds and 35 inches tall!

 

She wears mostly 2T, but still wears some of her 18 month shirts. She is getting a little tall for her 2T Levi's jeans (I think they run short), but we've been cuffing them so they look like capris. She wears size 5 to size 6 shoes, depending on the brand. I think she is going to have tiny feet like her grandma.

Lucy is totally potty trained and she deserves all the credit for it. She was totally self motivated when it came to potty training and we just followed her lead.

She still loves to eat. Some of her favorite foods at the moment are scrambled eggs, cucumbers, cashews, jello, cheese, Dutch babies, carrots, whole wheat tortillas, granny smith apples, blueberries, gyoza, sweet potatoes, yogurt. She prefers fresh veggies over cooked. She dislikes white potatoes, watermelon, broccoli, and shrimp.

She can ride her tricycle really fast! I love to watch her pedal around on it, but it also scares me a little. She is usually really cautious on things with wheels. I'm not used to seeing her go so fast!

She LOVES to climb on everything and she has about 20 shin bruises to prove it. Playgrounds never seemed so dangerous to me. She is fearless and not afraid of heights.

Gardening fascinates Lucy right now. I think she started to piece together that we plant seeds and care for them to grow food for us to eat. She BRIEFLY went through a phase of where she thought it would be a good idea to eat leaves and berries off of any plant she came across. We had some very serious discussions about that and I think she is over it now. She has been lucky to plant some herbs and flowers in the yard with grandma this summer.

 I love hearing her describe things and make up silly songs. I need to be better about writing down the things she says. She was hungry the other day and told us that her "throat was roaring". I think she meant that her stomach was growling, but couldn't quite remember the correct phrase. She also recently named one of her dolls Klackus. Which she totally made-up. Toddlers are the best.

Lucy loves letters right now and know the sounds and/or names of A, F, L, P, Q, S, T, U, and W. I think she knows more, but those are the ones that she is consistent with. We are focusing on lowercase and their sounds first, but she is picking up the uppercase and names without our prompting.

I'm so excited to see what this year brings us!

What does three year old Lucille enjoy?
Reading books (Favorites: Sophia, Pinkabella, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?)
Playing in her Sandbox
Riding her tricycle
Jumping, climbing, and balancing on things
Singing about everything
Playing with water
Giraffes, dogs, and cows
Construction trucks
Pretending to do schoolwork
Washing her hands with lots of soap
Making play dough
Helping momma cook
Swinging with daddy
Playing with my old Barbies (Didn't plan on this, but she is so entertained by them)
Putting together puzzles
Going to the park
Asking lots of questions. All the time.

Photos by A Fresh Take Photography

The Thirty-Third Month

My sweet girl is only three months away from being three!

She is still tiny, but growing fast this year! Her most current stats are 33.75 inches tall and 23 pounds, but I'm sure she is even bigger now. She wears size 5 shoes and mostly 2T clothes (18 month tops and dresses haven't been put away yet). She has tiny feet, but will definitely be in size 6 shoes by summer.

Lucy with her favorite stick for drawing in the sand at the playground.

The newest thing in her life is creative dance class. She loves putting her ballet clothes and going to class. I think the teacher is new to this age group and is trying to adapt the class as we go. None of the girls really have the patience to wait in line and it is really hard for them not to touch all the mirrors on the walls. Lucy would prefer to just run back and forth in her leotard for half the class.  I pretty much just let her do that as much as the teacher allows. She LOVES her teacher by the way (I told Lucy that her teacher was a real ballerina, so that might have something to do with it).

I only have this cell phone photo of Lucy in her dance clothes, I really need to remember to take my camera to class!

We still are going to the library for story time every week. Lucy looks forward to seeing her friends, singing, reading books, and dancing. She also loves to check out library books and take them home. Michael usually will help her check out books on a different day of the week, as one of their daddy-daughter dates. Occasionally they go shopping at Ace Hardware instead, which she thinks is fun because of the free popcorn.

Walking to the playground.

Something new that she started incorporating into her speech recently is "no matter", which she says when she doesn't want us to worry about something she is doing. Example: "I'm just going to get something from the fridge for my kitchen, no matter!" Oh the fridge, we considered putting a lock on it, but I like that it is accessible to her and helping with her independence. She likes to pick her own snack or retrieve/put away things when we are cooking. So, occasionally I'll find a stick of butter with a bite out of it, no matter.



I only got this goofy smile today.

She loves to eat, her favorite foods right now are scrambled eggs with spinach, oatmeal, tortillas, sweet potatoes, homemade jello, cucumbers, plain Greek yogurt with a little honey, kefir smoothies, any cheese, and any fruit. She enjoys chicken with ketchup to dip in, but she loves ground beef and sausage. She enjoys most fish, especially salmon, halibut, and tuna. She will eat coconut oil and butter by the spoonful if you let her. Her most frequently requested dish is Dutch baby and her all time favorite food (if you ask her) is muffins. Especially these muffins: whole wheat muffins, caramelized banana oat muffins, and coconut flour pumpkin muffins. She will usually try at least a bite of something new or something she doesn't care for,. She currently dislikes broccoli, white potatoes, and shrimp. She will eat spicy food on occasion. I can put pretty much anything in a burrito, soup, or smoothie and she will eat it.

Drawing in the sand is serious business around here.

I let her help in the kitchen as much as my sanity with allow. Cooking with a toddler is exceedingly slow and messy, but she loves it. Mixing, measuring, pouring, cleaning, and tasting are her top skills in the kitchen right now. We are working on cracking eggs. She cracked two today without getting any shell in the bowl! She really enjoys cutting things with a knife, but I haven't upgraded her from a butter knife, so she can cut soft things like bananas and mushrooms. I explained to her how to make a béchamel sauce while I made dinner tonight and I had her attention the whole time.

Cutting mushrooms for fried rice. (Excuse the blurry cell phone picture!)

What does thirty-three month old Lucille enjoy?

Reading books

Singing songs, including made up ones

Running and climbing

Playing with her friends at the playground

Going to on walks

 Listening to poetry (from this)

Playing with play dough

Collecting sticks

Bird watching

Pushing a kid cart at the store

Playing with blocks and Schleich animals

Garbage trucks and construction vehicles

Pretending to run errands with her baby dolls

Cooking pretend food

Helping mommy in the kitchen

Receiving mail

Painting and coloring