At The Age of Three....

• At the age of three, MK is in the 60th percentile for height and the 90th percentile for weight.
• At the age of three, MK reminds me daily, "When I was baby, you teach me to walk?" - yes, she can walk, run, twirl, roll over and dance the night away, her favorite dance being the twist.
• At the age of three, she loves music. She wakes up singing and goes to bed singing. MK sings church songs - This Little Light of Mine, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World; she sings made up songs - Booty Ta-il (two syllables for tail, and we are not sure what prompted her to sing this song and we discourage her from singing this song, but admittedly so it is quite funny to hear and she dances to it as well); she sings classic childrens songs - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday (she sings this to our entire family including the little "cha, cha, cha"), If You're Happy and You Know It - all sorts of songs; and then there is Beyonce - she even recognizes the song Halo before the words ever begin....so, in other words, she is a music, singer lover and well rounded in this category!
• At the age of three, she loves to pretend. At the doctor's office the other day, she turned my leg into a notebook with a little imagination. She was doing her speech homework and she would make this little clicking sound as she pretended to turn the pages. Pretending stretches into babies too. We always have a baby with us, most of the time in MK's little hand. She will tell us to be quiet because the baby is sleeping or she will tell us her baby is crying because she is sad or she is crying because she is in trouble or she is hiding - the baby is invisible of course so we find ourselves watching where we place things as MK gets most emotional if the baby is overlooked.
• At the age of three, MK is learning to play alone. We encourage MK to play in her room for 45 minutes each day. She does well, listens to music, plays puzzles, plays Legos, plays with her babies, etc. Although it is not an intentional thing on our parts, due to her age and her personality, she is most often the center of attention. This 45 minutes allows us all to take a step back :)
• At the age of three, MK talks about China. Her stories are most often fabricated from what she hears us talk about or what we have read about or what we have told her. Every airplane she sees is going to China. And every baby is from China.
• At the age of three, MK loves to have her nails painted, begs for lipstick, sits still to have her hair curled and prefers her plastic princess heals to most sensible, everyday shoes.
• At the age of three, MK attends speech twice a week. It has come to my attention recently that perhaps she is really taking it in when I tell her to look at me, slow down and say what she wants to say. Sometimes I have a difficult time determining who the teacher is. For example, MK will ask for something. I will have no idea what she is saying. She will say it again, slower trying to articulate better and then she will ask me, "Now, can you say that?" Her speech is coming along. At her three year check-up, the pediatrician stated to me that most often, he expects a stranger to be able to understand 75% of what a three year old says. He went on to say that he could understand 50% of what she was saying. Her speech is delayed, as expected, but it is definitely improving.
• At the age of three, MK is aware of feelings. She will tell us she is upset. She will ask if someone is happy. She will not rest easy until a crying baby has been soothed. When in trouble, she is quick to tell us, "It's not my fault." Above all, my favorite thing to hear her declare is, "I love you safe and happy!" She will look at us with those big, brown eyes (the ones that we have always adored), she will grab our cheeks with those chubby little hands and she will sweetly say, "I love you safe and happy!" At the age of three, she has quite a way with words.