Kate's Update at 3.5 Years Old

Kate is now three and a half years old and is overdue for an update too!

Kate is still at Good Samaritan Academy and currently goes three mornings a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She is now in the Puppies class which has 19 kids, a large class. I love her teachers, Ms. Cindy and Ms. Krystal, and they are always so sweet to take a minute and tell me about Kate’s day. Recently, Kate has started to learn how to trace letters and learn opposites, which is just another sign of how big my little girl is getting. When I drop her off in the morning, she escorts me to her classroom to drop her lunch box off and then kisses and hugs me goodbye. Her friends are usually in the great room each morning and Kate will typically walk over to the coloring table and sit down by herself to draw. When I pick her up at lunch, she is usually sitting in the corner reading a book. It used to make me sad, thinking she was all by herself, but I’ve come to realize that’s what she prefers. As I walk into her classroom to pick her up, there’s a chorus of kids saying, “Kate Evers, your mommy is here”. They all address each other by their first AND last names – so funny.

Jingle Jam recently ended due to a lack of participation so we asked Kate if there was anything else she wanted to do and she said she wanted to try “Playball”. Each Monday, the Playball coach comes to school and takes the kids upstairs where they learn how to play different games and be a part of a team. She has also expressed an interest in dance since several of her friends at school participate in dance. Depending on our financial situation in the fall, we might sign her up for that. It’s a much bigger financial commitment (almost $300!) so I want to make sure it’s something she wants to do. I don’t see a long term dance career in Kate’s future, but I want to give her the opportunity to try whatever she has an interest in.

I am proud to say that Kate is fully potty trained with the exception of an occasional accident (I’m slowly recovering from the Chick-fil-a incident, Kate recovered immediately – haha). She will even wake up dry at naptime and bedtime several times a week but she still wears a pullup at those times. I’m in no rush to night train right now. The Hershey chocolate eggs were our life saver when it came to getting over the potty hurdle we had been facing for months. We had tried bribing Kate with toys and also tried taking away her tv privileges and nothing worked until that fateful day I bought a bag of Hershey chocolate eggs. Kate tried a chocolate egg on the way home from school and said she loved them. I immediately took advantage of that statement and told her that if she wanted more, she had to go on the potty. I thought it was a long shot like everything else we had tried, but when we got home, she went on the potty and she hasn’t looked back since – a HUGE relief!

Kate loves her little brother and is a great big sister. She isn’t fond of sharing her toys but most of her toys aren’t suitable for Mason to play with anyway. At Easter lunch, Mason managed to grab Kate’s new Lalaloopsey unicorn to chew on and Kate burst into tears when she saw him doing that. To minimize the drama (I thought), I gave Mason another chew toy and took the unicorn from him to give to Kate and he immediately burst into tears. It won’t be the last time they fight over the same toy but I didn’t expect it to start so early!

Kate loves to sing either in the car to the radio, at church, or while she is playing in her room. She is also starting to do more pretend play – I’ll hear her making up conversations (sometimes heated) between her princesses, ponies, babies or stuffed animals. She still loves to watch tv and her favorites include: Mickey, Dora, Curious George, Diego, and Doc McStuffins. She also loves to play with her princesses, the princess carriage, Rapunzel dress and shoes, bubbles, chalk, coloring books, and stickers. She is a whiz at puzzles and can easily master the 48 piece puzzles. Puzzles are one of those things that people approach differently and Kate definitely has her own approach. We have to tried to show her how to put together the edged pieces first to create a frame, but she prefers to start at one spot and work out from there. I’m even more amazed at how she never looks at the picture of the completed puzzle – she just focuses on the pieces. 

Although Kate is a great kid, she has given us some challenging parenting moments. We are constantly reminding Kate to use her manners such as “Please” and “Thank you”, which is something I think she should have engrained in her by now. Justin and I are still working with her on saying “Yes/No Ma’am” and “Yes/No Sir” but that is another thing we have to consistently remind her about. She doesn’t have the concept that she replies to mommy with “Ma’am” and daddy with “Sir”; everyone is “Sir” right now. I know one day it will click with her so for now we just try to be consistent. Another bad habit Kate has developed is chirping or making noises instead of using her words. Sadly, we can interpret what they mean, but we try hard to ignore her until she uses words or remind her to use her words instead. Brushing and fixing her hair is another ordeal most mornings. Kate has told me she wants long hair, but only wants it in a “small ponytail”. She will pitch a fit, crying and screaming with huge tears, if I put it in a big ponytail or in pigtails. She is extremely tender-headed when I brush her hair and repeats “Tentle Mommy, TENTLE!” until I’m done. Dramatic.

Kate still has all the same favorite foods such as chicken fingers, French fries, vanilla or chocolate ice cream, pizza, Kashi cereal bars, Cheez-Its, M&Ms, Craisins, grapes, strawberries, apple juice, fruit punch, milk and sweet tea.

Recent phases she says include:

• Not quite yet (if I ask her if she’s ready to do something) 
• A little help here!
• Just tell me!
• When I was a little girl… (I think she has heard me say that)
• Sometime day (a combination of “someday” and “some time”)
• Last day (a combination of “last time” and “one day”)

Lately, she has developed a quirk where she wants to smell everything.  It's so odd, and anything she holds like food, a toy, clothes, etc all goes straight to her nose.  I'm perplexed as to how this started, maybe she is learning the five senses at school, but if so she has taken "smell" to a whole new level.  She also tries to find as many excuses as she can to get out of bed on some nights.  It's not every night, but occasionally she will come out of her room and tell us the reason why.  She used "I'm thirsty" and "I have to potty" at first but now she has expanded her reasons to include "my eyes hurt", "I hurt my finger", "I can't find kitty" and on and on.  She usually only uses an excuse once, so she's getting more and more creative theses past couple weeks as to why it was necessary for her to get out of bed.  She tries to portray a concerned look at her face which quickly turns to a smile when she actually gets the sentence out.

She is a hoot and I love hearing her sweet little voice. Occasionally, she will tell us to “Hush” and “You're hurting my ears” if we tell her something she doesn’t like but she has quickly learned those phrases get her in trouble. Bedtime now is generally around 8 and she will sleep in as late as 7:30 or 8:00 unless it’s a school day and then we usually wake her up around 6:30. Kate still needs a nap, but it continues to be difficult to get her to go to sleep ever since she has started going part time to school. When she does finally fall asleep, she usually sleeps an hour and a half. Daddy has discovered that Kate will go to sleep faster if she is in our room for nap time. I guess the temptation to get out of bed and play is too great for her in her room.

Kate is also in that independent stage where she wants to do everything herself.  I usually let her attempt the task first, even when I know she is going to get frustrated and quit.  The other night, she was putting on her pajamas and came shuffling out with her pajama pants around her ankles.  She had her hand on her hips and exclaimed, "Help Mommy!  I can't get my pants on and it's not my job to do it!" How do you respond to that? Haha.

Kate is the most precious little girl and I wouldn’t change anything about her! When I picked her up from school today, it was raining and she said, "Don't worry Mommy, God sends the rain to help the flowers grow!"  I love her more than words can express and I’m looking forward to all the fun times ahead! Here are a few recent pictures of Kate, although I wish there were more!

 The puzzle queen

 "Playing" video games at the airport.

 Hello Kitty and Kate in their Rapunzel dresses.

  We got ready for church early one Wednesday night and I begged Kate to take a picture with Mason.  It was the first picture I have of them holding hand which is so sweet.  But instead of getting a great picture of them together, I captured this:

 First they were both happy...

 then only one...

and none.

 

My princess!