Personality: If I thought Maddie had a lot of spunk at two, at three she is just full of personality! We can already tell that Maddie is a talker and extrovert like her Daddy but she's also a little stubborn and opinionated like her Mama! I was so worried about Maddie at 18 months old because she just wasn't saying a lot of words, not nearly as many as some of her peers, and she just didn't seem to be very verbal at the time. Well, those worries are completely unfounded now! From the moment Maddie wakes up in the morning until her head hits the pillow at night, she is talking almost constantly. We never have to wonder what she is thinking or how she is feeling about something because she just says whatever is on her mind. And her language has exploded in the last 6 months from complete sentences to whole paragraphs and long winded stories at times. She still mispronounces some words but for the most part, her language is pretty clear these days. And the things that come out of her mouth just crack us up!
Here's some of the more recent Maddie sayings:
I had stepped on the scale one morning to see how much weight I've gained from this pregnancy (probably not a good idea in the first place!) and Maddie says, "Whatcha doin' Mama, are you fat?" I can blame her dad for that one!
She's been starting to have dreams/nightmares lately and will tell us about them the next day. "When I closed my eyes last night, I saw a dinosaur." I asked her what the dinosaur was doing and she replied, "He was on the couch, and he was jumping around and he was roaring and I was scared!" She's also had dreams about aliens, robots, scary bugs that were killed by Darth Maul and Thomas the train and Lightening McQueen. And yes, Daddy is no longer allowed to show her StarCraft or any of his "scary" games!
Sleeping: The big change here of course is that Maddie moved to a big girl bed! It has worked out amazingly well and I'm so glad we were able to wait until she was 3 to make the transition. Maddie still takes her nap about two thirds of the time but I think she will be giving it up by the time she's 4, maybe sooner. We've also had some recent sleep issues with the nightmares that Maddie has been having so we let her and Isaac each pick out a Cars nightlight for their room and that seems to be helping!
Potty: This could be an entire blog post by itself but I don't think anyone wants all those details! Let's just say that it has been the HARDEST transition we have dealt with yet! But finally, after about 4 months of hard work and persistence, Maddie is doing amazing! She is pretty much completely daytime trained, with the exception of her nap and she's even waking up in the morning with a much more dry diaper than before. She loves to pick out her big girl panties each night, and she usually will go on the potty all by herself, without a reminder from me. We are SO proud of her!!
Eating: As much as I wanted things to turn out differently, Maddie is just a super picky eater. We're hoping she outgrows it with time but for now we just continue to offer new foods alongside foods we know she likes. She is generally pretty good about fruit and veggies. She loves cereal, muffins, pancakes, crackers and toast. And sometimes she will eat scrambled eggs, deli meat and yogurt. But she has completely refused to eat almost any kind of meat and anything that has meat in it (tacos, pizza, etc.). So feeding her is a real challenge!
Learning: We've been trying to teach Maddie some things at home but it has been hard to find the time with a little brother and another one on the way! She can almost count to 20 and is starting to understand what numbers mean by being able to count and tell us how many of something there is. She knows some of her letters but doesn't seem to have a whole lot of interest in learning the alphabet right now. Although she can sing the ABC song pretty much in its entirety and knows the letters in her name! She's known all of her colors for a really long time now. She loves coloring and doing things with her hands, building things with her duplo blocks, play doh (a more recent love), and putting together tracks for her cars and trains. We think she's a pretty smart girl :)
Playing: Oh this girl loves to play and make believe all sorts of things! Her absolute favorite things are her cars and trains. She plays with them every single day and usually a train or car goes with us on errands. She also loves her princess castle from Memaw and Papa, playing outside with her water table and sandbox, pushing things around in her baby doll stroller and her beloved monkey Addie. She's into a lot of toys that are typically for boys but she is most certainly a girly girl. She loves pink, wearing dresses, sparkly shoes, hairbows, getting her nails painted and lip gloss! It's a pretty fun combination :)
Maddie is definitely a girl with some sass and can be strong willed at times. We've seen more defiance and refusal to listen lately. But she is the sweetest girl I know and I am always amazed at how much she loves her brother. She is super protective of Isaac, letting us know if he's crying or needs something, and making sure he has a toy to play with on car rides. She has come a long way with her willingness to share and will usually give him toys or a part of her snack without any prompting from us. There are still days when they fight like crazy but we have lots of days when they just have so much fun together. Having a little brother has been a really good thing for Maddie and she's matured so much since Isaac joined our family. I hope they grow up to be best friends!
Wow, that was so much stuff about Maddie and I'm sure there is so much I'm forgetting but I think those are the main things I want to share about our sweet three year old! I can't believe my baby is getting so big but I look forward to each new milestone and adventure we get to experience - it's been quite the ride so far! :)
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