Cora Long Legs

Two months later, I am finally getting around to blogging about Cora's 3 year stats. The couch pictures were taken pretty close to her actual birthday, so it is just the blogging that is behind. But, first, I have to add a couple of bath pictures. Lee bought me a new camera for Christmas. Cora and I were experimenting with just how fast it is. Holy Mackerel! You can see every water droplet that she was spitting from her mouth. We were laughing so hard while taking these pictures. My mission in 2012 is to learn how to actually use this camera. It is a Canon Rebel T3i dslr. It's super nice, and we are getting way better pictures now. I love my husband!!

On to the 3 year stats.
Cora weighs in at 34.5 lbs and stands 38.5 in tall. She is a tall, tall kid. She is by no means a giant, but tall enough. :)

Milestones:

• She can count to 10. She sometimes forgets 9, but she's learning. She loves counting.
• She can "sing" her entire ABC's. I put sing in quotes because all the letters aren't necessarily clear and she sometimes will repeat a middle part over and over again. 
• She knows her colors. We practice a lot by having her pick what color of cup she wants her milk in or what color of shirt she would like to wear for the day. It seems to have really helped, especially with colors that often look similar like orange and yellow or blue and purple. It is a lot of fun to see her develop and learn.
• We have also started working on shapes. She especially like hearts and stars and doesn't seem as interested in circles, squares, and triangles. Hearts and stars are way better, in my opinion.
• She still takes a nap most days. They vary in length from 1-3 hours. I rarely wake her up from a nap because they don't seem to interfere with her sleep at night at all.
• She is completely potty trained, even over night. She'll go #1 on the toilet all by herself. She still prefers to go #2 in a diaper. She'll ask for a diaper and then want it changed as soon as she finishes. Her pediatrician said this is totally normal for a lot of kids. Lee and I have decided we'll let her figure out when the time is right to poop in the toilet.
• Her imagination is incredibly active! She is constantly playing make believe and pretending to be someone or something else. She loves pretending to be a cat, dog, super bunny, or flying dragon. It is so much fun to watch her play.
• She has been diagnosed with a speech delay. She has previously hit all of her milestones for speech development except for this last one. While she can say individual words, she has difficulty saying complex thoughts and sentences. Her pediatrician suspects this will be relatively easy to fix with a speech pathologist. Since she has no other gross or fine motor skill delays nor behavioral or social problems or warnings, there is no underlying concern for anything more than just a speech delay. Her pediatrician easily made the diagnosis by a mere 2 minute conversation with her. I told him that I suspected she was behind and wanted to know how Lee and I could help her. He said that a stranger should be able to understand 50% or more of what a 3 year old says. The only people that understand more than 50% of what she says and Lee and me. Her pediatrician had an entire conversation with her. After a minute or so, I asked him if understood anything. He said no, not one word. I translated for him. He asked how Lee and I were able to understand so much because what she was saying was completely gibberish. I hadn't thought about that before. I realized that a) We have learned what he language sounds like (like most parents), b) she is very good about staying in context and talks about what is going on around her, and c) she uses a lot of gestures and acting while speaking. I even realized that she still uses some of her baby sign language. I just didn't realize until talking with her doctor how in tune Lee and I are with her gesturing and signalling. So, she starts seeing a speech pathologist in early March. I am looking really looking forward to getting her some speech assistance for both her sake and mine.
• She loves playing at the park, sledding, fishing, and tattoos. I don't know of many three years olds who will sit in an ice fishing hut with their Daddy for 4-5 hours or spend an entire day in a small boat and not complain once. Even if the fish aren't biting, which seems to be happening a lot lately. She is the most perfect side kick for Lee and me. I can't wait for her brother to be able to join the three of us.

She is an incredibly nurturing little soul who I love from the bottom of my heart. There is no one else in this world who could have completed Lee's and my life more than this 3-foot, blonde bundle of energy.