We Have a 3 Year Old!

When Mira woke up on her 3rd birthday, she was greeted with a bouquet of balloons and a new, giant doll house with all the accessories!

I made her chocolate chip scones for breakfast which she loves ever since having them at CoCo's house at the Witches' Brew. We put a candle in one and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She blew the candle out all by herself. She washed these down with chocolate milk, of course!

We made her annual hand imprint; it's amazing how much kids grow in a year! And the biggest difference was that, this year, she asked to do the imprint rather than me having to beg her to do it!

We went to the library for storytime; one of her favorite places to go.

We made a stop at Whole Foods (another favorite place) to pick up cookies for our evening dessert, but, of course, I couldn't refuse when she asked to have one right then.

We had homemade pizza for dinner - Mira's favorite.

Dinner was followed with the chocolate chip cookies we picked up earlier - so YUMMY!

She told us it was "the best birthday EVER!" about a hundred times throughout the day, so I guess we did okay!

Friday, the day after Mira's birthday, she had her well-baby check-up. It was the most comprehensive and intensive doctor's visit she's ever had! This is what all happened:

• Developmental Questionaire - Included questions for me and/or Mira to answer and activities for Mira to perform for testing language, fine motor, gross motor, and cognitive development. I laughed through most of this questionaire because of questions like "Can your child speak in a full sentence with at least three words?" and "Can your child jump forward with both feet leaving the ground?"
• Lead Poisoning Risk Questionaire - questions to determine if she is at-risk for lead poisoning. There were a lot situations that I wouldn't have thought of as risky - thankfully, she is not at risk in any way.
• Urinalysis - Mira got to pee in a cup for the second time in her life.
• Hearing analysis - they used a small machine that looked like an electronic ear thermometer - a few beeps and it was over. She can hear great.
• Vision test - her first time to stand and look at the eye chart, she did it one eye at a time and can see 20/20. The nurse was impressed with her ability to perform the test; she said a lot of 3 year olds don't quite cooperate or get it.
• VEP (Visual Evoked Potential) Test - This was an optional test that they offer. It basically tests for potential problems with lazy eye and other neuro-orbital problems. Mira was hooked up with three electrodes and "watched TV" to see if both her eyes were relaying information at the same rate. Mira was not a fan of the electrodes being stuck to her forehead, but was cooperative and did what she was supposed to do. Test results came back good on this one as well.
• Vaccines - she got the FluMist and only needs one dose this year since she got vaccinated last year (Yay!). She got her second dose of Hepatitis A which I thought would be the only shot this year. I was surprised to find out she needed another PCV vaccine, because I was sure she already had all those. Apparently, they have updated the vaccine, so she needed the new-and-improved version - Prevnar13 (she had Prevnar7 before).
• CBC (Complete Blood Count) test - Mira sat in my lap for this and actually handled the prick and subsequent milking of her little finger pretty well considering she was already tired of being at the doctor's office and plenty mad about having both her legs pricked. Test results were great.
• All the questionaires and tests came back with great results, and Dr. Berry was very happy with her development and growth - so lucky we have a healthy little girl!

Here are some current stats on miss three-year-old Mirabelle!

• Weight: 31.4 lbs (58th%-ile) As usual...
• Height: 38 inches (74th%-ile) This surprised us - she doesn't seem extra tall compared to her peers, and she's always been in the 50th %-ile. I think I will re-measure, now that I think about it....
• BMI 15.3 (37th%-ile) First time we've heard this stat on her. Obviously this would be different if that height measurement is off...
• Clothes size: 3T Shoe size: 7
• Her desire for independence is through the roof - she wants to turn the lights on and off by herself (there are stools placed near her light switches in her bathroom, hallway, and bedroom), go potty by herself, let the dogs in and outside by herself, etc, etc.
• The bedtime routine now goes like this: bath, get pj's on, brush teeth, read 2 books, slide off my legs to "land flump on the floor", she puts chapstick on (all by herself), she switches off her light, we sing ABC's, then she turns her iHome on and climbs into bed. Alli and Blankie are still neccessary and she now has a whole row of stuffed animals along the wall that all have to be "situated" just right before she will lay down. She calls them "my guys."
• During bath, Kenny and I have to put on one of two productions. Either he tells "The Pete Story" - about a couple of dragons and their human friends, including a little girl named Mirabelle; or he and I put on "The Tiana Story" which involves one of us reading The Princess and the Frog while the other of us acts out the story using a multitude of bath toys to represent the different characters. Mira has a small Princess Tiana doll who requires many costume changes during this story. It's the same everytime, and if we miss a part or try to skip anything, Mira is sure to correct us.
• Mira usually goes to bed around 8:30 most nights these days and wakes up around 6am. She usually naps around 1:30 for a few hours.
• She is doing very well with all of her letters - she knows most all the sounds and is working on putting sounds together to figure out words.
• There are many words she recognizes. Some include: Mirabelle, Frankford (our old street), Jeter, and Shatzie
• She is doing so great in gymnastics. She is now in Level 2, so I don't do it with her anymore. She has improved so much now that I'm not over there to be a crutch! She can go across the beam like it's nothing - forward, backward, and on tip-toes. She is improving on her cartwheels and has mastered seat drops and plank. Her most recent triumph was a front support on the bars - very cool! She has a lot of fun with Coach Whitney and her friends, Cole and Emelia.
• She also loves and excels in dance! Miss Jennifer is very impressed with her speed of learning, motor skills, and verbal skills. She remembers most of the moves and does a great job following instruction/example. I love watching her, Shaylin, Kinley, and Lucy chit chat when they're waiting their turn - they look like such big girls socializing! I can't wait until the recital!
• She can write her name all by herself. The "r" was the hardest part, but she's got that down now. Some other letters she can write all be herself are: N, O, W, and maybe a few more...we definitely need to spend more time on that, because I'm sure she can do more that we just haven't tried yet.
• When she colors now, she does so good at trying to stay in the lines (I've never prompted her to "stay in the lines"). She has also started insisting on coloring everything the "right" color (something else I have never mentioned). A few months ago, she went so far as "researching" the correct color for a character in the coloring book by going and finding a storybook she had with the same character. I was impressed by her resourcefulness since she thought of that all on her own.
• She has a full understanding of wide, wider, widest; tall, taller, tallest; fast, faster, fastest; etc., etc.
• She finally started eating sandwiches (YAY!), so now PB sandwiches (no jelly) and turkey and mustard sandwiches are a regular part of her diet. She has also started eating the peel of apples, so she either eats them in slices with the skin, or sometimes she eats them whole. It's so great to be able to toss a whole apple in my bag as a snack!
• We made a "New Food Chart" and are trying lots of new foods to earn fun prizes. She is highly motivated by this type of reward system and has tried 15 new (healthy) foods in the past two weeks. (I've also tried a couple new foods!! Yay, Mommy!))
• She says so many funny things, it's impossible to remember them all. I wish I had a video camera on her 24/7! Some of the commonly used ones include: "Hang on, hang on guys!"; "You're being Ms. Nesbitt"; "Here's the deal."; "Let's have a talk."; "What's this all about?"; "What's the problem?"; and sometimes, instead of saying "I said ______", she will say, "I was like _______" (oh, dear)
• She is still fairly shy when in a new situation, environment, or around new people, but it now takes less time for her to warm up. Once she is comfortable, she switches gears and is the very out-spoken teacher/coach/momma of the group.
• She is super-affectionate - giving out tons of hugs, kisses, and I love you's throughout the day. When Kenny is leaving for work, she always makes sure he has given me a hug and a kiss good-bye. She has to witness it for it to count, so I usually get at least a couple. :)
• Right now, the only show she is ever interested in is Diego with 2 favorite episodes - "The Great Polar Bear Rescue" and "The Red-Eyed Tree Frogs" OR Angelina Ballerina. She knows how to turn the t.v. on, the blu-ray player on, open the blue-ray player, load a dvd, and close the blue-ray player.
• Kenny got the iPhone 4s this past week, and Mira already has that mastered - playing the games, selecting things, zooming in and out, etc.
• She still loves books and to read. She spends more and more time just sitting and looking through books. She has so many memorized. When reading to her, I will casually change some small insignificant word in the story and she will always catch me and correct me (and tell me I'm being Ms. Nesbitt). She can recite all of The Princess and the Frog, page by page. Some favorites right now include any and all Angelina Ballerina books (we check out at least 3 each week), Pinkalicious, and her newest favorite is The Giving Tree (Yay!).
• We go to the library at least once a week for storytime and to get a new load of books.
• She can count backwards down from about 8. We need to work more on counting higher. We haven't spent much time on that at all. She can get to about 14 by herself and to 20 if you help with 15 and 16.
• She loves to play the rhyming game. We just go back and forth thinking of words that rhyme with the word we started with.
• She loves to dance and often asks Kenny or me to "put on some rock and roll" so we can have a dance party. She can make her little hand into the "Rock and Roll sign" (first finger and pinkie up).
• She can open doors with regular knobs now. She is also a pro at opening/closing/locking/un-locking our sliding patio door (a little un-nerving).
• She has mastered going up and down stairs without holding on to anyone/anything, one foot on each step.
• She recently showed some interest in gender differences - what makes a boy a boy and a girl a girl. She was convinced for a while that the difference was that girls have eyelashes. This applied only to toys, cartoons, etc. - not to real people/animals. I'm not sure where she came up with that criteria. We briefly discussed the real difference between boys and girls while up in Nebraska where she had the opportunity to witness baby Ethan's diaper being changed. She seemed unimpressed and preferred her eyelash theory.
• She is quite the actress. She does a "country voice," a British accent, and various other voices. She uses different voices when she talks for her stuffed animals or for Jeter and Shatzie, etc.
• She can almost get dressed all by herself. She still needs some help putting her shirt over her head and with socks and some of her shoes.
• She has become very concerned/interested with what people around her are talking about - especially if everyone starts laughing. She will ask, "Mommy, what are you laughing about?" or if we laugh at something she says, she asks, "Why are you laughing at me?" She also often asks, "What are you talking about?" or if I'm ranting to myself (I admit I have road rage), she asks, "Mommy, what is it?" or "Mommy, why did you say ________?"  This last one has definitely made me be a little more careful with my word choice!

We are so proud of you Mira! You haven't run out of ways to entertain and amaze us yet!! You just keep getting better and better! We love you so very much and look forward to the coming year; we love watching you grow and learn! I can't even imagine how much more you will be able to do this time next year!