Elsie is 3!

Elsie's third year of life was one of transitions.  We were constantly amazed at the changes we saw in her on a seemingly daily basis.  Watching her language explode, personality develop, and witnessing her blossom as a big sister have been big highlights of the year.

Growth:
Elsie is 36.5 inches tall (30%) and weights 27.5 lbs (16%).  She wears size two tops, 18 month bottoms, and size 7.5 shoes. 

Learning:
Elsie recognizes most of her letters, and counts to 20 with ease.  She likes to be challenged with spelling, letter-recognition, and simple math questions.

She is a puzzler-extraordinaire, easily completing 48-piece puzzles by herself.

She is also very good at cutting with a scissors, and loves to cut and glue art projects every day.  Especially if they involve paint and glitter.

She is a whiz at using Mama and Daddy's iphones, and plays lots of learning app games and navigates the touch screen with ease.

Playing:
Elsie's favorite thing to do is play outside.

She would be perfectly happy to swing for a couple of hours every day, and is not very motivated to learn to pump by herself.  She also loves climbing, jumping (completely skipping a whole city sidewalk block!), and sliding, and going for walks to fill up a basket with found-item treasures.  

When she has to be inside, she prefers imaginative play with her animals ("animal rescue" is a big theme).  She also enjoys serving people pretend food that she make in her kitchen, "playing" the piano, and working on art projects.  In the evening, she happily plays "chase" with Mama and Daddy for twenty or thirty minutes before becoming tired. 

When she has "quiet time" in her room, she prefers to play with her animals and read herself stories.

She doesn't have a particular lovey, rather she chooses a new animal (or 2 or 3) to be her favorite each day.  The chosen ones will run errands with us, go on stroller rides, play at the park, and join us at the table at mealtime.  If they are plastic, they also have bath time with Elsie before they find their way into her bed at night.  The next morning, they are usually discarded in favor of a new set of friends.

Tutus are a favorite, as is imaginative play centered around a "going to ballet school" theme.  Dress-up of any kind is loved, especially if it involves dresses, leotards, hats, or animal costumes.

Personality:
Elsie's transition from toddler to preschooler has seen her become rather shy and observant.  She tends to let her friends lead at play dates, and does not enjoy meeting new people (especially adults) or venturing into unknown spaces.  She is often even too shy to talk to grandparents on the phone.

Around her friends, she is very energetic and agreeable.  She plays easily with younger kids (she loves babies), and is thrilled when older friends include her in their games (especially if they involve chasing!).  Although she has the typical preschooler trouble sharing her toys, she is very empathetic and tries to help friends who are sad by giving them new toys or sharing with them.

When she gets in naughty moods (mostly when mom or dad are busy with Sylvie and she wants more attention), she likes to run away from us, yell, or pretend she can't hear us.  She is an expert tantrum-thrower, and has perfected the "limp body" defense when she doesn't want to do something.

Eating: 
Elsie eats most foods...when she wants to.  She goes through phases of loving everything, from grape tomatoes to salami to apricots.  And then suddenly she claims she doesn't like them anymore, confusing mom and dad and making grocery shopping a game of hit-or-miss.

Sleeping:
Elsie has trouble going to sleep.  She has given up her daily nap, and sleeps at night from about 8 or 8:30 pm until 6 am.  She generally sleeps through the night, except for the occasional bad dream.  Instead of nap time, she likes to "cuddle up" with an iphone and pick a show to watch on Netflix.  Dora the Explorer, Bo on the Go, Diego, Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, and old Disney movies are her favorites.

Self Care:
Elsie is very interested in becoming more independent, and is working hard to master such things as putting on her own shoes, socks, and shirts.  Before going outside, she often reminds Mama to help her with her hat and sunscreen.

She does a great job at wiping and re-dressing after using the potty chair (fully trained!!!), and is a pro at using utensils and cups at the table (when she wants to- dropping food on the floor "accidentally" is also a fun game that Mama and Daddy are not fond of).

Her next big battles are going to be night potty training, learning to tie her shoes, and learning to brush her own hair (but her mass of curls might make that last one a tricky skill to learn without inducing more snarls)!

Party Time:
Elsie's birthday fell on Father's Day this year, and she enjoyed a party with friends the day before, then shared a special family day with Daddy on her actual birthday.  She had a great time picking out her party decorations, food, and theme ("Puppies", of course!).  Always the social butterfly, she chose 15 friends that she wanted to invite to her party (7 of which were babies!).  She really impressed her parents by doing a great job playing with all her friends on her big day.  She even offered to trade balloons with a little boy who wasn't happy with his color.  The highlight of the party was the puppy cupcakes- she ate the frosting off of her birthday cupcake, then threw the rest away before Mama and Daddy realized what she was doing, and grabbed a second one ("But for my birthday I just want a frosting cupcake, please!").

Watch Elsie Grow!
Comparison Photos:

1 year

2 years

3 years