37 month update

Esme is 37 months now, one month over three years old. Some things have changed a lot! - She is in a size 3 vintage pattern and size 4 storebought, and size 9.5 or size 10 toddler shoes. All of that apparently, is HUGE for her age. People I work with often think she is four years, not a new three. She is 39 inches tall,, that is 3 inches taller than last time we measured her (4 months ago). PT is going somewhat better - it isn't a flat outright NO and refusal anymore. But she still has to be in the mood and we have to be stern about it. Some days I am working and I really don't do as much with it as I should when I come home. With her growth spurt I'm scrambling to make her clothes with longer arms and legs in them, and that are appropriate for the season. She fits hardly ANY toddler socks on the market.. and I don't have time to make socks for her (it takes forever with my knitting abilities) -- I'm going to have to find something, maybe girl's size 'small' - haven't tried those, yet.

Her descriptive vocabulary is increasing. She tells in the mornings she is HUNGRY, and that the downstairs is COLD *teeth chatter*. We bring our breakfasts upstairs as a rule. Getting her to take a bath when it is COLD is another thing as well - it is a fight until she hits the warm water and gets her bubbles. She likes food coloring in her bathwater - it is a good incentive to get her to go willingly. Once in a while bedtime is fraught with crying and disobeying. It really takes me being ready to go to bed as well and refusing to let her get up because I'm in bed, and she should be doing like Mumum does. She asks me to sleep in her bed often after I read her a story - and I tell her I don't fit. This makes her sad! She is wanting to be a 'big girl' and copies Mumum and Daddy to the word and the laugh and the action sometimes... as if she is practicing.

She pays very close attention to things and will try to describe things to us later -- sometimes it is hard to understand. She thinks 'differently' - calls chicken soup broth 'soup milk', and asks for a box on the shelf by reading off letters on it and saying 'the hat on the head box right there - the hat on the head box'... because it has a hat image on the side of it. She has an excellent memory - sometimes better than I do, so sometimes what she is describing takes a while to filter back in my head... 'the yellow cup we had the coffee and the milk in' or 'the purple the toes make the toes the purple'.. her upside-down grammar continues to improve but still requires some extra thinking.

Some of her favorite games are sitting on her changing table rolling a ball, or stacking blocks, or playing with her little figures. She still does a lot of stacking and counting and sorting in her play. Mark says she is training to be an accountant. Other times we will hear her in a whole conversation with the figures and stuffed animals - telling them what is right and wrong and no fighting and no poop in the bed and whatever she decides they need to be reprimanded about. She tells the dogs and cats exactly how to behave as if she was the 'big sister' to them. She also loves to roleplay she or one of her stuffed animals is the mumum or daddy and take a 'baby' animal for food and clothes and change and bath and to bed and go through everything we would normally do in a day in miniature. She is still a 'process' kid directing us through processes in the house like making coffee, juice, using the appliances etc, although now she is usually more into whatever she is doing elsewhere to stick with the 'benevolent dictator' mode where she directs us around the house for an extended period of time.

She loves to use her rollerskates downstairs, but not for too long. Give her something new or change things up a little and she is looking things over for longer than I have patience for... trying combinations over and over and when finally satisfied she knows how it works, then she is off to do another thing. She does draw and do some crafty things, but once again she usually doesn't stick to it very long. She would draw for hours when she was newly two, but now it is a few slashes and she thinks she is done or needs a new piece of paper!

In the last few months her imagination has taken off from just stories between animals and toys to the world of imaginary friends, pretending to be doggie/kitty/Daddy etc with sound effects and gestures etc. I know we've had some of this before but it is really full-blown now. I get asked to feed carrots to imaginary rabbits in the truck, handed imaginary mice and told to protect them from dogs sitting on them etc etc... She has done more of the 'this imaginary dog/bear/nothing came out of that book/tv and now I'm playing with it', as well.

She is very opinionated about colors, what food or show or ... whatever she thinks she has a 'say' in (and of course things she doesn't *ha*) I get told 'no' now to fabrics I want to use for her clothing, and sometimes to a piece of clothing I want her to wear for the day. I have to use 'deals' and compromises - especially if she is asking me for something while refusing to do something else I expect her to do. Example: she wants me to give her a candy but will NOT pick up the blocks on the floor she was done playing with fifteen minutes ago. I tell her she can have that candy - it is ok - BUT I expect her to help me pick up the blocks FIRST. And then she thinks about it.. and sometimes says No, and then gets the same response the next time she wants something -- eventually I get the task I want done and she gets a want fulfilled by Mumum. It has added up to more listening and less discipline in the long run when everything isn't answered with 'No', but she knows what her expectations are.

She is still reading small words by 'memorizing' - and will often say 'hat' is 'cat' if she isn't trying hard to pay attention. I still often find words I didn't know she knew. She watches 'WordWorld' episodes and games online, and loves to play with the 'Upwords' game. She is counting to nine accurately - and a little higher if she decides to. But she often will count 'nine, eleven, twelve, fourteen, seventeen' -- even though she knows what 'ten' is and the other numbers... and has counted using them before. Her favorite shows are Tom and Jerry and Cinderella. Her favorite books are Go Dog Go, and the Disney Cinderella that matches her movie. I've had to extend her handmade pants pattern from 17 to 19 inches long to fit her! WOW. In fact, I should just go ahead and look at my vintage size 4 pants pattern and see if she is ready for one of those.