Mikey is THREE!

Happy Birthday, Mikey!

Here are some notables of our favorite three year old:

Favorite songs: "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts, "We Found Love" by Rhianna, the "ABC's" and "Row Row Row Your Boat". You recently started singing songs which is very cute and fun. At Eva's House you love music time with Ronnie.

Favorite toys: You are completely OBSESSED with your "Cars" themed toys (ex: characters from the movie, your "Mack" truck, and the airplane). There isn't a day goes by that you don't play with them. You are also becoming a master at puzzles (especially your interlocking train puzzle) and still love your farm and tractor set. You are beginning to participate in pretend play and still mostly play beside other children and not yet initiating play WITH them.

As for television, you LOVE Chuggington, Handy Manny, Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I'm not 100% of the title since we always just call it "Jake"). You don't ask for them as much but it goes without saying that you will watch any of the Cars movies, Toy Story movies or the construction/airplane/boats/fire rescue series.

Favorite books: You still have a tendency to get "stuck" on a certain book and we read that book EVERY night for a week straight, and then it's a new book. You love your "Look and Find Elmo" books (the one with "Daddy's work" and "birthday party" is preferred over the other), "Dazzling Diggers" & "Flashing Firetrucks" books. You are now really enjoying longer books and will sit with Mommy or Daddy to read. Your attention span is great for this (or it is a good way to delay your bedtime).

Activities/Daily Routines: These days Monday is our "free" day. Tuesday and Wednesday we go to work/Eva's House. You come home and play briefly before bath and bed (bedtime aims to be 7:30 but can range between 7:30-8:30). Thursday we have My Gym in the afternoon and Fridays are swimming. You tend to wake up in the morning somewhere in the 6:00 hour. You have become much better about entertaining yourself through books or quiet toys in your room until 7:30, when I come and get you. We are inconsistent about the potty since most days we aren't home all day to keep you in underwear and really "work" on it. You definitely go potty before bath/bed and other times throughout the day when I do remember. At Eva's you go on a consistent basis. You will not use any language to communicate the need to use the potty. Every night our routine is bath, pajamas, brush teeth, books and bed. After we finish reading books, you kick Daddy out so you can "snuggle" with Mommy. Sometimes we snuggle in the rocking chair or you put your head on my shoulder while I stand next to your bed and sway from side to side. You point to your bed to indicate when snuggle time is over.

Development:

Your expressive language is still progressing at your typical "Mikey" rate. You are now using three and four word phrases to communicate and it is mostly about objects/events taking place in the moment. You are not really asking questions or relaying any information about your day (past events). You will be starting weekly speech services on (Thursday) March 8.

In terms of your gross motor skills, I feel like you try very hard but the upper body isn't quite syncing with the lower body. You run quickly but tend to fall a lot. You strongly dislike activities at My Gym in which you are on a raised surface (like balance beam) since you feel like you are going to fall (feel insecure). You prefer the swing with the buckle so you don't need to engage your tummy muscles to use the "saddle" swing (again, insecure/fear of falling). You are still not consistently jumping with two feet off the ground and cannot jump from one surface to the other (like from a step to the floor). Instead, you bend your knees as if you are going to jump and then just take a big step. It is very cute and you are very proud when you do it! You can jump with two feet together when on the trampoline. Since it has been a mild winter, we have taken your bicycle out a few times to work on pedaling. Not very successful so far but we will work on it!!

Eating: You feed yourself using fork and spoon for most (if not all) of your meal (depending on if the utensils are still on the table or if they are thrown/dropped, etc). You LOVE your veggies and could eat salad all day. We recently learned you like Ceaser salad. During the course of the week you eat cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (all colors), carrots, peas, corn, green beans, and occassionally broccoli. You also LOVE fruit (blueberries are your favorite but raspberries, blackberries, kiwi and bananas come pretty close). In terms of meat, you eat pepperoni, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs. (One of these days you WILL eat a homemade chicken cutlet....) You are becoming more inclined to try new foods and have eaten breaded shrimp and ground turkey with taco seasonings. I also try to get more veggies into you through pumpkin and zucchini bread. You will eat any carbohydrate as well as dessert. You recently stated that your favorite ice cream flavor is "chocolate" and you ask for cookies for breakfast on some mornings.

Some say that the "threes" are worse than the "twos". We'll just have to see about that. You are pretty awesome in our book---no matter what age you are!!

xoxo
Mommy & Daddy