Caroline is 2 short months away from turning 3. THREE! WHOA! I can’t believe our baby is turning 3 soon. As I read the schedule update we wrote for her 2.5 year update, I was brought to tears. Caroline was so excited to be a big sister. She’s now become that big sister, yet didn’t get to bring her baby sister home, or play with her. My heart hurts for her so much. She asks me all of the time if we are going to have another baby soon. She’s also told me that she doesn’t want to die, and that she misses her sister. My Mama heartstrings are a mess! I hate that she has had to go through something so hard, at such a young age. She takes care of me when I’m sad, and we take care of her when she’s sad. We all went through something so difficult, but we all came out stronger on the other side- especially Caroline.
She has a new favorite song already Unforgettable, by Thomas Rhett. In this song, one of the lines is “We jumped in…right off the deep end”. Never do they mention that they are jumping into water. Obviously that’s implied. I was so impressed that Caroline caught onto that! One day as the song started, she said “Mama it’s the water song!”. I was confused at first, and she explained that it’s the song that they “jump in”. I’m always blown away by her when I least expect it!
Caroline is in LOVE with Trolls. She would watch the movie daily if we let her. She is also starting to sing (finally some legit singing), and sings to the soundtrack! She recites so many lines from this movie. Again, super impressive to us!
Schedule
Caroline started refusing naps, so we made a change to her schedule to get her back on track. We now call her nap time “rest time” and she has different rules. Her rules are that she can get out of bed to get a new book to read, or a new stuffed animal to bring to bed. She must then return to bed and stay quiet during rest time. When her clock turns yellow (after 1 hr 45 min) she can get out and play quietly in her room. Her rest time clock is green now, instead of blue for nap time. This one change removed the nap time resistance, and she took right to it. She now naps during rest time most days, though!
7:00 am wake
8:30 am breakfast
12 pm lunch
12:30-2:30 pm rest time
5:30/6 pm dinner
7 pm bed
Eating
Unfortunately, due to all of the nausea I had during pregnancy, I was snacking ALL the time. Caroline got very used to it and is now demanding snacks all day. It’s been tough to break, but we are well on track. She’s not eating much of a dinner, but it’s not related to snacking at this point. She is also going through a picky phase. She sees what is on her plate and says “that’s not what I wanted”, and pushes it away. We just tell her if she doesn’t eat, she won’t have energy to do anything fun after the meal. Sometimes she chooses to eat, and other times she refuses, but we aren’t making a big deal out of it. No snacks (especially if she doesn’t eat), and we occasionally will give her the dinner plate back later if she’s really hungry (although we are trying not to do this so we don’t create a bad habit).
She’s also refusing to drink milk now. She tells me it smells. I’ve switched cups, and eventually just gave up. She eats yogurt and cheese, so I’m not too concerned with this new refusal of milk, but I am hoping she’ll get back to drinking some eventually.
Sleeping
Sleep has just been not good. I wrote an update on it at this link if you want all the details. Basically she’s refusing to go to bed, she was refusing naps (prior to changing it to rest time), and she’s waking up in the middle of the night. We’re working on it!
Wake Time
Caroline is now going to preschool twice a week for 2.5 hours. She is doing great. She’s earned a sticker every single day for listening well and good behavior. They are working on letters, sounds, and colors at the moment. She knows her letters, and colors already, so she’s really picking up on the letter sounds and accompanying words. She comes home and practices what she’s learned on her own before her nap. She now sings the entire alphabet song, and sings other songs as well. She likes to practice things that she does at school, like sitting crisscross applesauce, standing on a shape while singing the alphabet song, etc. It’s adorable.
My only concern with school right now is the social aspect. She’s anticipating that the other children are going to be mean, take things, push her, etc. None of this has ever happened at school, but she seems to create scenarios in her mind where it does. She comes home and says that no one wanted to play with her, or that the other children said no to playing with her. When we finally get down to it, she’s not asking anyone to play. She seems to think that if other children aren’t coming up to her, that she can’t play with them. Or that if they aren’t doing what she wants to do, they don’t want to play. I just feel bad for her. We talk a lot about this and are working on learning what it means to play together, or how to ask other children to play. I wasn’t especially concerned, until her teacher pulled me aside to tell me that Caroline is upset when they go out to the playground. She sits by herself and doesn’t play, and asks for me. She told me yesterday that she’d rather play Mama because she likes me more. I think a big part of it is just that Caroline is younger than the other children (she’s not yet 3 and most of them are already 3, some turning 4 after January). There is a big difference in social skills, and I think she’s just not understanding. This is something we are just going to work on and help her through.
Gymnastics is going SO great. She’s at the next level (preschool level). Again, she’s in a class with all 3 and 4 year olds, so she’s young for her class. She’s excelling, though! They are really focusing on skill and technique at this level, and Caroline has taken right to it. She knows her different positions (pike, straddle, and tuck), and she’s learning to point her toes, leaver her arms up when she finishes a forward roll, etc. Today she did the high beam on her own twice! She’s really being challenged and pushed outside of her comfort zone in this class, and she’s rising to the occasion. She’s focused in class, and so determined to do well. I can see her focus and determination and I am just amazed. And again, she’s listening so well in class. It’s a pleasure to watch!
She’s super close to mastering her float at swim class, and again is just excelling at the level she’s at and the challenges presented.
Milestones/Interests
Her favorite TV shows are still Dinosaur Train and Daniel Tiger.
Her favorite movie is Trolls. So much so, it is a STRUGGLE to get her to watch anything else.
Her favorite songs are the Trolls soundtrack, and Thomas Rhett “Unforgettable”.
She still loves just being outside. She loves picking up leaves, rocks, sticks, acorns, etc.
Caroline is amazing at expressing herself. She tells me that it’s ok to be sad about the baby. She expresses that she’s sad and misses April. She notices when I’m upset and gives me hugs. She reminds me that it’s ok to be sad, but that we can still be happy.
Her communication skills continue to shine. She’s started talking as if she’s writing. She’ll have her stuffed animal or character friends talk, and she’ll say a quote followed by “she said”. She says sentences big enough to use the words “as, while, when” to continue with her next thought. She’s just VERY descriptive.
Caroline is loving helping me. She sweeps and puts the silverware away, and even hangs up clothing, and puts away socks and underwear.
Caroline is still very interested in learning to read. We are trying to do her reading app more and more to help her out.
We were using her wipe clean books recently, and Caroline has suddenly become amazing at tracing (when she’s focused). She used to just have no control over her writing, and now she can trace letters and numbers! So awesome to see!
She talks nonstop.
She finally realized that she can open doors. This happened during a tantrum, but she caught on quickly and now opens doors on her own! Yay!
Caroline suddenly hates showers, but loves baths still. She practices swim class in the tub. She is the instructor and Dora, Boots and her cup are the students. She has them sit on the side of the tub just like she sits on the side of the pool and waits her turn. She then takes them through all of the skills she’s learning in class.
She loves painting! All of the sudden, she can paint for an hour. She loves everything about it.
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