Franklin Forum: August 2013

I've been trying to write this post about Amelia, ever since her third birthday ~~two~~ ~~three~~ almost four months ago now. It's hard to know where to start with this girl. She simultaneously brings me joy and frustrates me to no end. I suppose that's just part of being three. And a girl. And the middle child.

She has a hard time remembering that people can't read her mind. She's not a great communicator, but not because she lacks the vocabulary. Often, she bursts into tears, seemingly out of no where. When we finally get her to tell us what's wrong, it's usually something like, "I thought you were going to get me a glass of water!"

She cries and melts down less often these days. Jeff has been really great at helping her develop some coping mechanisms - the biggest one being a request for her "calm down" music (Neil Young's Harvest). Over the last year, she's gone from being a complete and total mama's girl, to actually preferring Daddy sometimes.

Quite unlike Marley, she completely clams up if an adult talks to her. At her three-year doctor's appointment, she barely said two words to the doctor! Being the center of attention makes her very uncomfortable. She actually reminds me a lot of myself as a child. Maybe that's why she can drive me so crazy!

Here's a little more about 3-year-old Amelia:

*Height: 38" (70th percentile)

*Weight: 31.5 lbs (58th percentile)

*She can recognize many letters and numbers, and can even write a few, including her name.
*She's getting faster on her balance bike, but bike riding is still not her favorite thing to do.

*She has a big imagination, and is a great story teller. She enjoys putting on "shows" with her toys for Marley, when she should be falling asleep.

*She loves reading, and will happily page through book after book on her own. Though, she also loves being read to.

*She is independent. She wants to do things herself, even when she can't (frustration from this brings her to tears often). I think I've been allowed to pick out her clothes a handful of times over the last year.

*She loves to play with and take care of her baby brother. She always sets aside little bites of food for him from her plate. She gives him his binky when he cries in the car, and offers soothing words ("It's okay, Buddy.") She gives him lots of cuddles and hugs, often not in the most gentle way, and loves to make him laugh.

*She loves to play with her big brother. They usually come out of their room in the morning with well-formed plans of what they're going to play. Some of their favorite things to do together are dress up, build (legos, magna-tiles, etc), and draw.

*She's as stubborn as ever, and really likes things to go according to her plan.
*She love to play alone. She can spend hours in front of her dollhouse, making up stories by herself.

*She is so creative. She thinks of the most interesting names for her toys (like Ohkoh the cat), her stories (The Nightmare of Soulser is my favorite), and herself (Princess Crusto, among others).

*She loves to help out around the house. Whenever I'm cleaning or picking up, she joins in, usually without even being asked. Marley is becoming quite spoiled, having Amelia picking up after him all the time!
*She isn't the most adventurous eater, but she'll usually try new things with some encouragement from Marley. She went through a brief stage (I think it's over, thankfully!) of dumping food/drinks that she wasn't happy with on the floor. Her favorite food is cheese, cheese, and more cheese!

*She still wears diapers at night, but is getting more and more reliable on the potty during the day.
*She no longer naps, but sleeps in her own bed for 11-12 hours a night. She occasionally (about once a week) wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Usually she's had a bad dream, and will fall back asleep fairly quickly.

*She has trouble saying a few sounds. Her 'R' comes out sounding more like a 'Y'. So, Marley=My-way, shorts=soits, fork=foik, and my favorite: sorry=sigh-wee. It's freakin' adorable.
*She loves going to school, and highly values direction-following.

*She's an intrepid explorer, with very few fears. She recently offered to accompany Marley down to the basement to protect him because he was scared.

*For her birthday, we took her to Red Robin downtown on the waterfront. Then, rode the ferris wheel for the first time.

I could say so much more about Amelia, but I need to end this post before she turns four. So, there you go!

Yikes! Time flies when you're enjoying a busy summer with three kids! Well, big news: Samuel is officially crawling. He's been doing an army crawl for a while now, then he started alternating between belly and knee crawling. Just this week, he's started crawling on his hands and knees all the time. He has eight teeth, all of which came in by 9 months. We haven't seen any new teeth this month, so I think we're due for an explosion soon. He's really good at feeding himself, and eats everything we eat (yes, everything). In fact, he gets really mad when he sees someone eating something that he doesn't have. He much prefers the big kids' toys to his own. He loves to play games like stick-out-your-tongue-at-each-other, pass-the-toy-back-and-forth, knock-down-the-block-tower, and fetch (he throws, we retrieve). He can clap his hands, and sign "more" (though it's possible he's just clapping for his food). We're pretty sure he knows who he's talking to when he says "Mama" and "Dada". At his 9 month appointment, he measured in the 65th percentile for height, the 98th percentile for weight (!), and the 62nd percentile for head circumference. Here are my adorable 9 and 10 month old babies.