ryann - three years

Oh man.  I went back to look at Ryann's two year post to see what I had written and give me an idea of where to go with the post and I cannot believe how much she has grown.  I'm sure I say that all the time, but at 24 months she still had a little baby left in her.  Not so much anymore!

Ryann really has grown so much.  We were at my parents house over Easter weekend and she wanted to sit at the table in a regular chair, not her booster.  I started to say something to affect that she wouldn't really be able to reach the table, but she plopped herself in a seat and was just fine.  It surprised me.  At her doctor's appointment she weighed 31lbs and was 36.3 inches tall.  Ry is wearing mostly 3T clothing, except for some tees and jeggings from Target.  Those always seem to run small.

People always ask me if Ryann is a good sleeper, and my first response is no, she isn't.  But I suppose that isn't exactly true.  When she is asleep for the night, she is out, generally sleeping from about 9pm until 6:30am, and toss a one to two hour nap around 1:30 in there as well during the day.  So yes, she sleeps.  But she almost rarely sleep in, and actually getting her in her bed is quite the chore.  She stalls during bedtime like it is her job.  And now she comes out of her room about a million times asking for this or that or wanting to tell us something.  It drives me nuts.  She used to be so good about staying in her room when Sleep Buddy was on.  Thankfully when she wakes up in the morning she stays in her room until it goes off.  And even though she never really sleeps until 7am, we've changed it so Sleepy Buddy doesn't go off until then.  There isn't much benefit to her being out of her room before then.

pink chocolate chip pancakes, per the birthday girl's request

Nap time has been renamed 'quiet time', and I no longer expect her to go to sleep.  But for the most part she does.  Sleep buddy is on from 1:15pm to 3:30pm so I'm supposed to get a couple hours in the middle of the day free from toddler duty.  But lately she is having a party in there for about an hour, and pops out to request something multiple times before finally falling asleep.  Since she has been falling asleep later I'm often having to wake her from nap.  I won't let her sleep past 4:00pm.

This kid's picky eating habits have gotten out of control.  She definitely prefers junk food, even though I try to limit it.  Ryann eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich nearly every day for lunch.  She loves fruit, and will eat almost any kind of fruit.  Other favorites are muffins, honeynut cheerios, almonds and pickles.  There isn't a single veggie that she will eat on a regular basis.  She'll tolerate a few bites of carrots, corn and bell peppers, but that is it.  We still resort to squeezy pouches and smoothies to get any veggies in her.  We used to have a rotation of four things that she would eat for dinner that we would make, but now she even refuses most of those, so for dinner her plate consists of whatever we are eating.  Which she never eats.  I know we should have been doing that from the start, but... hopefully she'll start to try and like more foods soon.

Ryann is unbelievably smart, and would know more if I would be better about working with her.  Her Grandma 'Nita has bought her some preschool workbooks, and she plows through them like crazy.  She is beginning to understand some basic math concepts and is pretty great with letter sounds.  She is also starting to get a grasp on rhyming words.  She LOVES doing the little worksheets.  For a variety of reasons we opted to keep Ryann at the church preschool where she has been going to MDO.  I'm hoping it wasn't the wrong choice.  She has plenty of years to learn academics, but I'm worried that there won't be enough to keep her interest.  I know they don't really focus on letters and letter sounds and such until the kids are in the 4 year old room there.  Oh and Ryann can also write her first name pretty convincingly.  So proud of her.

Ry is quite the little problem solver when it comes to wanting situations or events to go her way.  For instance, the other day I told her the twins were playing at Sarah's house (if you're new here Sarah used to nanny them and we played with them a lot).  We used to go to Monkey Bizness with them often, so Ry got all excited and said "Hooray!  We can go to Monkey Bizness!"  Now Sarah has a home daycare so she can't really get out, and I tried to explain that to Ryann.  "Well, it's ok, she can bring the other kids too.  I don't mind."  "Honey I don't think she can, that is a lot of kids to take care of, and I think her car is too small to drive them all."  "Well... we can take our car there and someone can ride in our car!"  "With you and Elsie in the car we don't have any extra seats, because kids your size can't sit in the front."  "Well... we could probably all take a bus to Monkey Bizness."  There is a solution for everything, of course!  :o)

The little miss is also trying to become a master negotiator.  We'll often tell her if she does something, such as "If you eat three bites of vegetables and two bites of fruit you can watch an episode of Dinosaur Train."  She'll come back with "Well, how about three bites of fruit and one bite of vegetables?"  Actually she'll usually say "I'd prefer..." with her finger pressed to the bottom of her lips, her little thinking face.  I'm fairly certain this trait comes from me.  I can vividly remember being in dance rehearsals, bargaining with my instructor for how many more times we had to do the dance full out. 

Ryann is a very strong headed, opinionated little girl.  She isn't the least bit afraid to tell you what she wants, and is even less timid about letting you know when you're doing something she doesn't like.  Parenting her can be a very tough thing, it definitely tests your patience.  Some days she is great and sweet and what not, but unfortunately when she gets mad it escalates very quickly, and her first reaction when she isn't getting her way it to throw something or hit someone.  I hate that.  I know she is young and that is very normal, but it is so hard to keep my cool when she starts doing that.  We talk regularly about using our words and talking about our feelings, but she just hasn't come around to it yet.

sometimes you just have to jump out of your car and dance to your jams

Currently Ryann is OBSESSED with dinosaurs, mostly Dinosaur Train.  We are regularly pteranadons or T-Rexes.  Christopher ended up purchasing all of the seasons of Dinosaur Train on his iPad, and now that is all Ryann wants to do, sit around and watch it (which of course I won't allow all the time, therefore we have another thing to battle about, but you know).  Ry has definitely learned a lot about dinosaurs from the show, and can name several different kinds.  The other week when we were at my parents house, she picked up a shark and said, "Look Dad, a cretoxyrhina!"  We had to look it up to see if she was right, and sure enough.

Before Ryann had every episode of Dinosaur Train at her fingertips, we were forced to watch all of the Madagascar movies on a repeating rotation.  I regularly have the afro circus song stuck in my head.  Now all lions are named Alex, hippos are Gloria, zebras are Marty, and giraffes are Melvin, because we didn't realize at first that they were actually saying Melman in the movie.  Thankfully if you have to watch a set of movies over and over again, they are pretty good ones.  Chris and I both agree the third one is the best, I love the penguins.  Oh and Ryann's favorite song is still 'I Like to Move It.'  Actually Chris bought the soundtracks from the movies, and if you play a song Ryann can tell you which movie it is in.  We have quite the awesome Madagascar dance parties in our house.

  

Miss Ryann has become quite possessive of her little sister.  If we are out and about and anyone so much as looks at Elsie, Ryann is quick to tell them that it is HER baby.  Yes her baby, not her sister.  :o)  Ryann is seriously just so cute with Elsie.  I love it.

Whew, this post has gotten long enough so I guess I'll try and cut it off there.  Ryann really just is such a special girl.  Almost everyone who meets her says something to the effect that they have never met a little girl quite like her.  When she is in the mood to be sweet she is SO sweet.  When she is excited she is SOOO excited.  And when she is pissed, well...

Miss Ryann, you are going to keep me on my toes for the rest of my life, I can guarantee it.  But I love you to pieces and I'm so incredibly happy that I am your mother.  I can't wait to see where life takes you.  But please stay little just a bit longer, ok?  I love you.