A few comments on what our “big girl,” who turned three-and-a-half a week ago, is like these days…

Interests: Like her sister, she’s very much into make-believe games – particularly restaurant (where she’ll take our order), school (including Mystery Reader, a carry-over from her first year of preschool) and hair salon. She likes finger-painting, being read to (If You Give a Moose a Muffin is currently her favorite book), playing her Angelina Ballerina memory game (she’s better than me at making matches!) and mimicking almost everything her sister does. Since our last update, her love (semi-obsession) with the movie Dolphin Tale has been replaced by her love for theTV show Caillou. She and Zoe usually watch it daily, and Avery will often tell us little stories about the main character and his sister, Rosie, making it sound like what happened to them happened to her!

Temperament: As I’ve written before, Avery has two distinct personalities: She’s bubbly, loud and even naughty at home but then quiet and even timid in some outside settings. She’s funny – often saying things are “silly” or calling me or Q “Silly Billy,” and doing things like kicking her friend Zachary out of her bed. She can be very tantrum-y and has been known to use a high-pitched scream when she’s really mad. (“DON’T DO THAT, ZOE,” she’ll yell, and then scream.) At the same time, she has a very sweet side:  Zoe was very sad/upset one day in Madison, for example, and Avery just went up to her and, without a word, gave her a big hug. Q and I were touched that she did so without even being asked (and we could tell Zoe liked it, too).

(Pre)school life: Though I don’t get tons of details of what she does on a daily basis, Avery seems super happy at school. She was clingy at drop-off for much of the fall, but these days she’s fine as long as she stands in the window of her classroom and waves to me as I leave the school. (It’s our new daily ritual.) Her recent parent-teacher conference went well, with her teachers telling us she is emotionally, socially and developmentally on target. She plays well with others and also knows how to play independently (something they said that not all three-year-olds master) and – most importantly – they said her speech is not unlike that of her peers. (The lead teacher told us that if she hadn’t known about Avery’s surgery and past hearing trouble, she never would have suspected there had been a speech issue.)

Other stuff: She considers herself a “big girl” now and likes to tell us about it. We recently stopped giving her a daily nap, though she still takes the occasional long one. (She’s actually sleeping as I type!)  She still wears pull-ups at night but, given that she’s had a few dry nights in a row, it feels like she’s ready to stop. Like her sister before her (and other kids of this age), she has some pretty cute ways of pronouncing words. “Crying” sounds like “frying,” “treat” comes out like “tweet,” and “birds” are “bewds.” “Potty” and “party” both come out the same, leading to some misunderstandings and amusing stories! She has learned the art of negotiation from her sister; the other day when Zoe wanted to borrow her lunchbox, Avery said, “I’ll make a deal. You can use it tomorrow and I’ll use it today.” She has been known to tease her sister (happily announcing when Zoe has lost a privilege while she still has one, for example) and the other day had a very creative excuse for copying everything Zoe said. After Zoe yelled at her to stop, Avery innocently said, “But I’m just trying to learn my words, Zoe.” (Well played, Ms. Browdy.)

-M

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under 78.Two kids-December 12. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.