3 years, Oh my!

UPDATE:  April had her 3 year well-check on the 7th.  Here are her stats: 24.8 pounds (2% on the American growth charts) and 35 inches tall (9%).  Our doctor was very pleased with how healthy and smart she is. =)  Her heart sounds great and the good news about her weight is that she is starting to inch up higher onto the growth curve!

“Mommy, I don’t want to have a birthday.”  ”You don’t? Why not? Don’t you want to be 3?”  ”No.”  ”How old do you want to be?”  ”2 and a half”  This was the conversation April and I had the day before her birthday.  I guess she wasn’t quite sure about this getting older thing and thought 2 and a half was a pretty good age to stay at.  We had a similar conversation that evening and she decided cupcakes and gifts were worth turning three for. =)

So, what sticks out in my mind as April-isms at her tender age of three?

1. The cute way she mispronounces blanket (blan-quet) and bottom (bom-ner).  She speaks very well, but she talks so quietly sometimes I can hardly hear her, especially while driving.  I’m regularly asking her to speak up and I already know that’s going to be a common thing she hears in school.  Her voice is a soft, sweet, quiet one (unlike her mother’s which is loud, booming and often carries further than I wish).

2.  At night time I always sing songs to her when I put her to bed.  However, recently she wants to sing, and every time she sings the third verse of “Away in a Manger.”  It melts my heart more than I can express in words to hear her sweet voice sing, “Be near me Lord Jesus I ask me thee to stay, close by me forever and love me I pray.  Bless all the dear children in thy tender care and take us to heaven to live with you there.”

3.  She loves to play on her own.  She loves to play with us too and will ask for us to play with her in her room or play a game or read books.  But so often I will realize she isn’t around and every time she has snuck away to play quietly in her room.  This is especially true since Christmas when she got her dollhouse and first set of Legos (they have to stay in her room because of Andersen).  While we’re on playing, it is SO adorable to watch her pretend play with all of her dolls, animals, Legos, etc.  And we also like to play a lot of games.  She’s very good at Busytown, Uno Moo, Kids Phase 10 and we’re working on Kids Skip-Bo.

4.  She can be a bit dramatic.  Whining and crying is a first resort when things are going her way.  We are working on it.  I’m hoping it’s more of an age thing and not necessarily a gender thing.  On top of that she can have a very tender heart and her feelings get hurt easily.  Some times it’s hard to tell if she’s doing it just for attention, but it borders on ridiculous.  ”April sweetie, don’t sit that way on the chair or it will fall and you’ll get hurt.”  Tears and melt-down.  Really?  If she didn’t look so much like us I would wonder at times if she were ours. =)  This also came out on her birthday; she didn’t always want people to sing to her.  I’ve found more often than not if you ask her then the response is favorable.

5.  Recently she got the whole pedal-the-trike thing down.  Woo hoo!  Hoping this opens up our world of travel a bit.  She’s still a bit on the slow side, but I think she would go normal speed if she had the desire to do so.

I know there are more, but I can’t think of them.  I will add them here as I do, because there are some things that I truly just don’t want to forget about her at this age.  I just want to bottle her up.  She’s such a sweet princess and it overwhelms me as I try to take her all in.  More pictures.