17 May 2012

At Three





Dear Sprout,

At three, you are the fiercely opinionated and independent child I expected you to be.  Part of that is just being three, I know, but part of it is also your intense personality coming through.

Last week you had your three-year check up at the doctor's office.  You are still in the 95th percentile for height and the 90th percentile for weight.  That, coupled with your long honey-colored hair, causes many people to assume you are older than three.

Then you open your mouth and some delightful vestige of toddler speech issues forth.  I love all these "frontings" and mispronunciations. I will, indeed, be sorry when your speech self-corrects.  Some of my favorites: "hairplane" and "hairport" and "bo-zoo-e-um" (museum).  You call yourself "Sibbie".  You like to pray "BERRY LOUD" at the dinner table: "Dear God, GANK GOU for the food!  And that we are all learning to share and be nice to one another."  Sometimes you add odd references to things you've been mulling over in your head, like "Gank gou that Grandma Grace Shirk is dead so that we know where she is in the ground." (My grandmother passed away this winter and we went to the funeral and it made a big impression on you.)

You really love Wonder Pets and Diego and Arthur on television. You love to count and are mostly accurate up to "eleben".  You're also really into rhyming words.  In the car, you will say, "Mama, tree and bee" or "sun and fun" or "Tait, bait".

Speaking of Tait, he is your best buddy in the world.  You play (and fight) with him every day.  You give each other hugs and have silly phrases and names you call each other like "tooter-head".  Yesterday you both were in the front row at the Community Bible Study children's program performance.  I didn't get to go, but "Mama Nomi" reports that you were both standing on the bottom step of the stage singing your songs.  Tait inadvertently fell off the step, and you thought it looked like fun so you jumped down too.  The two of you spent the rest of the performance taking turns jumping down the steps.

You exert your independence on a daily basis by selecting the clothes you want to wear and getting dressed all by yourself.  Some times the combinations are a bit garish as if you are trying to cram all of the colors of the rainbow into one outfit.   In general, I let you wear whatever you want as long as it is weather appropriate.  When I do need to intervene and require different clothes, you let me know that you disapprove strongly of my choices.  We're working on having you obey anyway.

Every night we pray that you will grow up to be kind and strong and wise and true.  Every night I tell you, "I love you more than coffee" (or chocolate or whatever else you know I really love).  Last night you said "I love you more than potstickers!"

I love you more than a million potstickers,

Your Mama



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This post is part of the Sprout's virtual baby book.  Someday I'll put it all together in a book and have it printed.


1 comment:

cara. said...

i love this so much. and i find it hilarious that we have been doing the same things with the girls at night. mae told me she loves me more than a thousand elmos so i know it's legit. <3

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