As Leah gets closer to three, I’m reminded of what we expected of three year olds in group daycare and raise my expectations every once in awhile. If she rises up to the task, we continue on but if it proves too frustrating I break it down or put it on the back burner for a month or two. When we were drawing lines and circles, she started putting dots inside of the circle. I asked her if those were the eyes, then prompted her to draw hair, arms and legs while letting her draw unaided. I am so proud of her first stick person. We’ve also been practicing connecting the dots to get ready for letters.
Since she was doing well connecting the dots, I let her try to do her name. I sharpened a few pencils and let Leah and her buddy go at it as well. I would do an example and let them follow.
She has learned so much in the past few months. She does her zipper on her jacket on her own most of the time, can completely get ready for outside on her own (snow/rain pants, mitts, toque, jacket, boots), can do a 24 piece inset puzzle without help and is almost fully potty trained (I trust her at home but still put on a pull-up which we call “special underwear” if we venture out). All of her potty training accidents helped her to get really good at looking for the tags on her underwear and pants and to put them on the right way.
Her conversations and understanding has developed a lot too. It is interesting to ask her about past events to see what stood out in her mind.
Some people say they grow up too fast but so far in my mothering journey I haven’t found this to be true. Each stage has it perks and downsides from cuddles and watching them take their step to being up many times during the night to feed and tantrums as they navigate independence.
I love watching her grow and am so curious to see how she adapts to becoming a big sister.