39 months.

maya @ 39 months :: feburary 4, 2009

• beginning of the month :: adjusting to preschool life. i can't say she wants to go (she's happy on the weekends when we tell her it's not a school day) but she goes without resisting ... most days.
• end of the month :: very rarely complains about going to school, and even asks to go on the weekend. even if she does wake up complaining about going to school, by the time i've gotten dressed for work she wants to get dressed and go to school too. she likes to get her hair done by her teacher, who does a much better job than i do. i've also gotten compliments on her behavior and how she's so good at cleaning up without being told. i did not know who the teachers were talking about. it worries me slightly that when i go to pick her up she often has to hug one of the boys from the 4-year-old class.
• her potty training is coming along; most days she doesn't have an accident. some nights she doesn't pee, other nights we change sheets totally bleery-eyed. but she still needs to learn how to use the right amount of toilet paper; sometimes she can't tear it off at the right place and ends up putting in a quarter of the roll of TP into the toilet!
• had a great time when her auntie L babysat while rupert + i went out for a few hours with our friends.
• loves to color. i made the mistake of complimenting her on how well she stays in the lines and now she gets a little upset when she doesn't. hmm ... i wonder where she gets that ocd from?
• she's no longer allowed in ian's room; we keep finding her in there raiding ian's sticker stash and also cutting them up with scissors on occasion.
• learning to clean up her room on her own a tiny bit better.
• her abc's are coming along but counting is still a challenge. she seems to always skip "3," even though she's three years old. when she does remember "3" she seems to forget all of the numbers that come after it.
• she's embracing "real" shoes (i.e., not crocs) and cute, colorful socks.
• she won't sit long enough to watch more than 10 minutes of her brother's basketball games, which means i don't get to watch more than 10 minutes of ian's games.
• she is quite the little charmer :: she got complete strangers to read her a book in the children's section of barnes & noble.
• grammar is not her strong point :: we hear a lot of "i is bossy!" and "i is rude!" around here.
• her favorite snack is dried mangoes from TJ's.
• her version of "are we there yet?" is "are we home now?"
• when we walk to school i noticed that she jumps over the cracks in the sidewalk. i'm grateful she does not want to break my back.
• her favorite movie characters :: tai lung and darth vader. and who does she want to be when she grows up? darth vader, of course. why? because "he fights and he's strong." zhoo-oom, zhoo-oom (my feeble attempt at making lightsaber sounds)!
• she calls pony tails "pony ride"
• her uncooperative conversational skills have already begun :: "what did you do at school today?" "i don't know."
• her favorite colors are pink and purple (no surprise). she often colors entire coloring pages purple or pink.
• we are seriously getting worried about what kind of teenager she's going to grow up to be. at the rate she's going we'll have a delinquent on our hands. just the other day i had to scold her because she colored all over her stool and the coffee table. i told her if she did it again i would take her crayons away. sure enough, the next day, i'm walking past her room and she tries to slam the door in my face, a sure sign she's up to no good. i go in and she's colored all over her floor. i tell her i'm very upset with her and take away her crayons. she starts to cry and claims she's tired so she wants to take a nap. fine. i leave her in her room, but notice sometime later that she's in the bathroom, washing her hands. for a long time. i yell towards the bathroom (why get up when you can yell?) to turn the water off. she yells back that she's still washing her hands. i go in and she's vigorously scrubbing her hands. wouldn't you know, if i take away her crayons but leave a ballpoint pen in her room she'll use that to write all over her hands. clearly, my fault. i take away the pen and go to assess the damage in her room. that's when i notice she's peed her pants. i guess the running water made her go. but she was too busy trying to scrub away the evidence of her actions to stop and use the toilet. needless to say i was not a happy camper that day.
• speaking of pee, i have to keep reminding her to "pee down" (i.e., sort of lower her behind into the toilet) or else her shi-shi shoots out of the toilet ... on to me.
• she's actually attempting to write her name by herself (see scribbles on picture above). she's also beginning to draw faces. she can also spell her name. i'm thrilled that school is really helping her academically; it's more than i managed to accomplish in three years. she's showing much more interest in letters and reading :: she points out letters while we're driving along and asks how to read words. when she wants to be read to but we can't at the moment and tell her to look at the book by herself, she always says, "i don't know words!"
• she randomly likes to say, "mama, i love you" or "mama, i like you," which is nice and all, but i can't help but feel she's practicing for, "mama, i love you ... can i [insert ridiculous request here]?"
• she can "sing" the imperial march from star wars.
• one of her favorite books is chicka chicka boom boom.
• when we do go to ian's basketball games she likes to hang out outside and do defensive sliding drills.