SteelyKid at three years, two months
SteelyKid was three years and two months as of two days ago, and she's been pretty busy since the three-year update, so I thought I'd do a quick developmental update.
As I mentioned last time, pursuant to a previously-negotiated agreement, on the Monday after her birthday she put her pacifiers in an envelope to send to the babies that the Mythbusters took candy away from. The first evening was tough, the second wasn't bad, the third was very bad, and from there the low points smoothed out and over the next week, I'd say, we got back to normal. So that was good.
Giving up her bottles was an anti-climax after that. We'd agreed on preschool as the transition date, but we didn't have to make a big deal of it, in the week or so leading up to it she just agreed to have a bedtime drink in a cup instead.
Preschool (half a day, with wraparound daycare with the same kids and teachers) started in September, and that was a bit of an adjustment, not so much the increased structure as the radically later and shorter naps (she used to sleep for roughly 1.5-2 hours starting about 11:30-12 noon; now naptime starts at 1:45 and ends at 3:00). But she's with some of her BFFs (including the one she's been friends with since about 13 or 14 months, when they would play peek-a-boo in the infant room) and making new friends and seems to be enjoying the activities and her new teachers.
Toilet training didn't advance much for a while, with her continuing to use the toilet exclusively at school and almost not at all at home, and then this past Monday she came home and announced that she wanted to wear underwear. Monday evening and Tuesday day went great, but a couple of mishaps Tuesday evening freaked her out and she didn't agree to put on underwear again until Friday morning. Friday went fine, though, as did this weekend apparently (she's at my mom's, but she always does better there anyway), so we'll see, perhaps we're starting to turn a corner. (Just in time to regress when FutureSibling arrives, probably, but maybe we'll have laid the foundation?)
In other news, she went through a serious hide-and-seek phase, and did eventually get the idea that she wasn't supposed to just jump out or screech happily when the seeking person came near her. She still does things like announce her hiding place in advance, however. Hey, it's cute, we don't mind.
We are firmly in the "Why?" phase, and just as firmly in one of the contradictory phases, in which she says "no" all the time, apparently just because she likes the sound of it. (My favorite example was when she asserted a couple things in a row that were obviously false. Me: "What is this, counterfactual day?!" Her: "No!") Her most recent verbal tic is "You can X if you want." As in, "Daddy, I just covered your slippers. You can be surprised if you want to." Or "A convertible! You can find one too if you want." Like that.
She may have developed theory of mind. We have been getting a lot of "Did you see" questions, which one book I read said was a demonstration that kids understood that not everyone had the same experiences. Of course, she still gets upset when we don't read her mind to determine that she really wanted to do something for herself.
This week was the first instrumental lie that we spotted: she told me that Daddy let her stand on the swings in the playground. So there's a developmental step. (What toddler-suited morality-based explanation have you all found useful? I dislike "because it's bad," but I'm finding it remarkably hard to distill down why lying is wrong into a single toddler-appropriate sentence.)
Finally, living with her is a little like living with a hobbit, because she has been making up a lot of songs lately: about what we're doing at the moment, about Emmy, about leaves falling from trees, and to cheer me up when I was sad that my computer wasn't working. It's quite charming. Though I'd prefer that she eat more like a hobbit, actually, as she is getting really skinny. (On August 12, she was 32 pounds 11 ounces, nearly 75th percentile, and 39 inches, 75th-90th percentile; but I think she's stretched out some more since then.)
And that's the news from three years and two months.
Picture links (not as many, but some really good ones):
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/08/thursday_taller_blogging_08041.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/08/you_say_its_your_birthday.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/08/thursday_future_physicist_blog.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/08/thursday_balance_blogging.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/08/thursday_unclear_on_the_concep.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/09/thursday_baking_blogging_09011.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/09/sing_along_time.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/09/thursday_sand_picture_blogging.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/09/thursday_shana_tova_blogging_0_1.php
As always, no unsolicited advice, but genuine questions welcome.
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