Carmela has hit a lot of major milestones this past year. Most recently, she wrapped up potty training and tied it with a bow, and has been sleeping diaper free at nap and at night for a couple of weeks now. She has accidents now and then, but she mostly does fine. She's also right on target for all of her development milestones, such as gross motor skills, fine motor skills, language development, basic reading comprehension, and social interaction skills.
As far as gross motor skills, Carmela has become notorious (notorious!) among her classmates and the staff at her preschool for her absolute, unbound love for dancing. Daddy and Mama hear about her dance moves all. the. time. She will break it down anywhere for any reason or no reason. She also is very excited about doing what she thinks are feats of gymnastics, but what really amount to extremely heedless somersaults. The preschool staff have strongly suggested that Daddy and Mama consider getting this kid into gymnastics or dance, because she would love it. At 3, Carmela is an energetic, enthusiastic, vibrant kid. She would just as soon skip, hop and run anywhere as walk. She loves to jump and jump and jump on her bed. She loves to throw all of the cushions off the couch, jump on the springs, and then leap onto the floor. This kid has energy to burn.
Which brings us to eating and napping! Carmela remains a fabulous, if not daring, eater. She loves watermelon and cherries now that it summertime, and she'll tear someone's face off for some sausage. She's agreeable to almost all of the vegetables, to all of the fruits except kiwi, and only because she doesn't like the little seeds, and to beans and grains. Her favorite breakfast is honey toast, but she'll settle for strawberry jam if that's all Mama has, and she'll never turn down an egg. She does not like stinky cheese, raw onion, tomatoes, or anything spicy. She loves salad, but Mama suspects it's mostly for the dressing. Believe it or not, Carmela is one of the best nappers at preschool. Mama thinks it's because she gets so much thinking, concentrating, interacting, and playing in during the day that she conks out for a two-hour nap every afternoon. She's getting better at sleeping at night, too, and lately only wakes up because she has to pee. It can be sort of a nightmare getting her to sleep, but she and Mama are making progress through the enforcement of some boundaries.
Because she's getting to be such a big kid, Carmela is getting more responsibility around the house, and she'll have her own jobs and tasks to do when she moves up to the older kids room at preschool next month. At home, she's getting better at helping Mama set the table. She knows to put the plates at everyone's seat, and she knows to put the forks near or on the plates. Mama can sometimes hand her a not-so-heavy dish to set on the table, too. Carmela is getting better about picking up her messes, putting toys away, and putting trash in the trash can, too, thanks in large part to preschool. She also recently started feeding Puffy, our gigantic kitty, her breakfast. Mama thinks it's very adorable to listen to her say, "I know, Puffy, I know," and "Come on, Puffy, let's get your breakfast," in her most soothing voice and she leads Puffy downstairs to her food dish. She also nicely pets her and says, "I love you," after she fills her dish. Puffy is too busy inhaling her food to respond, but I think she loves Carmela, too. At least in the moment. Carmela can't yet do things like help fold laundry or put her laundry away. The urge to jump in the freshly stacked piles is just too great, and proves frustrating for everyone. She and Mama and Daddy also still struggle with getting dressed, getting jammies on, getting on shoes and coat to go, but these are probably just struggles with transitions. Carmela is becoming very good at leaving her shoes by the door without being prompted, and she's getting better at hanging up her jacket and washing her hands.
Carmela still seems to enjoy painting at preschool, but she paints and colors much less at home now, probably because they do it so much there. Her friend Maddie gave her some lacing cards that she could care less about, but she LOVES to play with the colorful laces. Perhaps when she's a little bit older she'll get the lacing part of it. She's way into stickers right now, but only for short bursts. This is an area that's proven a bit tricky for Mom and Daddy, because on rainy, dreary days, we were always able to keep Miss Carmela occupied with painting or coloring. Now, not so much.
It's been very sweet to watch Carmela make a few special friends. She still enjoys her friends Anita and Georgia, and she's made some new friends at preschool, including Alix, Sophie, and Eva. She prefers girls to boys at this point, but we have heard her warmly say goodbye to a Cole and a Max at school. Carmela likes to engage in cooperative play with her little friends, and she loves imaginative play. She has a dress-up basket full of glittery, sequiny, satiny things, and some plastic fruits and vegetables that she likes to play grocery store with. She also loves to dress up dolls and to mommy her teddy bears. She's very good at comforting them when they're scared or angry. She's pretty good at sharing, and she's a kind, compassionate little girl when one of her friends is hurt or crying.
We have our stressful, frustrating moments, but Mama and Daddy think our girl is pretty spectacular. Here's to 3!
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