she needed to use "undies" rather than diapers. At first she needed
to be reminded to use the bathroom, but for the most part now goes on
her own without reminders. It took one accident of making #2 in her
undies for her to decide she never wanted to do that again! We still
allow her to use diapers at bedtime, but 90% of the time they are
completely dry in the AM.
Clara had a great time celebrating her 3rd birthday with her
classmates from preschool. They had a "cupcake cake" with a Dora
theme and worked on a project entitled "Purple Matisse" at a local art
studio for children. Clara wanted to wear her fairy wings and paper
crown (she received at school to celebrate earlier that week).
The past few months Clara has been memorizing her books so that when
we read them to her, she finishes the sentences before we do. I wish
my memory was as good as hers! Clara continues in "ballet" class and
taking violin lessons (although at this age she's just learning the
basics, like the names of the strings and how to hold her instrument
as well as pluck out very simple songs as using the bow to play them
is still quite a challenge). We'd like her to do other activities,
but they add up in time and money (like soccer, gymnastics, art
classes, etc). She does attend story hour some weeks, and often does
art projects at home with Jason. One of her birthday presents was a
small garden set, so she enjoys "gardening" with her little water
bucket and helping to pull out the weeds.
Lately Clara loves puzzles, much more than she has before, and puts
together puzzles ranging from 21 to 48 pieces. She is starting to
draw circles. Clara loves stickers and it shows, our clothes and
furniture often have a stray sticker on them which missed the paper
she was working with.
Our current struggles are now around bedtime. She does not want to do
the routine on our time schedule. We typically start her bed routine
around 7:15 pm (after her little brother is done with his), but it
takes her sometimes a half hour to take her clothes off. She'd rather
run around, sing, do puzzles, anything rather than get ready to get in
the tub. We've tried adding coloring to the water with "fizzy colors"
(very cool way to teach colors and how combining primary colors can
make a range of colors), and punishment of taking away a "blue song'
(she is allowed 3 youtube video after bathtime, typically a clip from
a disney movie or watching a child play the violin), neither is
particularly effective. Eventually she gets in the bath but then she
drags out the process afterwards, running around naked for another 15
minutes before getting dressed, watching her "blue songs" (if there
are any left) and using the potty before bed (she drags this out too
by insisting we read 3 stories to her while she's on the potty), then
getting tucked in and having the assortment of belongngins in her crib
(a little thomas the tank train, her big elmo, a paper bag of
stickers, her blankies, etc). The worst is that she's now starting to
wake up again in the middle of the night (like 3 or 4 in the morning)
and insist she needs something (like a bandaid, or a little plastic
Dora doll). I'm hoping it's just a phase and she can get back to her
good 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep!
