Lucy 3.5 year old update

 I'm a few months behind on this post, but lucy has been growing up and changing so much I wanted to get a mid-year update... better late than never! And I'm guessing things will be pretty crazy around here in March, so this may be her last solo update for awhile.
 Lucy has grown up so much in the past 6 months.  She is such a mature, polite, kind young lady and I can't help but look at her and feel proud to be her mama.

Some of the boring details:
Eating - She is amazing.  She claims her favorite foods are vegetables and she is always willing to try whatever I put in front of her.  I'm so thankful for her easy going taste buds and that she is my buddy when it comes to some of the healthy vegetarian meals I make (especially since both the boys in this house seem to be much pickier!)

Sleeping - Up until about a month ago Lucy was consistently napping 3-4 days a week for at least 2 hours at a time.  On the days she wouldn't nap she would take an hour quiet time.  This past month I have strongly discouraged her from falling asleep because I started noticing that the days she would fall asleep, no matter how short the nap was, she was taking forever to fall asleep at night.  Not that she was coming out of her room, but I just felt bad watching her roll around in her bed till 10:30pm at night.  Currently she takes an hour quiet time- she is allowed to do this in her room or in the basement (something I am allowing to avoid waking Hank up bc their bedrooms are next door to each other).  She doesn't have any issues with the quiet time and usually lays in her bed reading for the first 20 minutes, but the last 20 minutes are usually filled with pesky little questions that I would like to avoid.... thinking I need to get a clock in the basement that shows her what time she can come up.
*Note- she does still have her pacis at night and nap time... I had planned to take them away this summer, but do to the stress of the move, starting school and the new baby I decided it was best for everyone in our family if we waited till next spring... hopefully it goes smoothly then!
 Potty Training- This has been going pretty well.  We had a very rough first two months in Akron, with her going poop in her pants almost daily.  I was giving her a full dose of Miralax and making her sit after most meals, but nothing I was doing helped the problem.  Finally I stopped the Miralax one day and she has been doing great ever since.  Part of my feels like the Miralax was making things move too smoothly for her and made it so she couldn't control her poop as much... not sure, but I am praising God for clean underpants and a healthy little girl.  She does go every other day (not every day, like the doctor wanted) and I still have to make her sit after her meals to ensure she goes, but I think that's just going to be her normal for awhile.  She is getting better about going potty on her own, but I would still say half the time I just make her sit because I've seen her get too distracted and completely pee her pants. 
 Things she is into right now: 
Gymnastics (picture below)- she loves going every week and I would say it the activity in Akron she loves the most
Arts/crafts/coloring- she loves creating and drawing and will quietly do this for long stretches
Playing outside- whether this involves jumping on the trampoline, riding her bike, or driving the power wheel, this girl loves to be active
Watching shows- as she always has been! This girl would watch TV all day if I would let her, which I don't, but she usually gets a 30minute show after nap time and has been loving Doc McStuffins and Octonauts lately
Reading- as always, she loves being read to and would probably do this all day too, but she has also been doing a lot of reading on her own lately too! This has been amazing to watch... a few months ago she had mastered letter recognition and knew most of the letters sounds so I started working on BOB books with her and she seemed to pick it up no problem. It's still a lot of work for her, and I have to encourage her to practice, but when she puts her mind to it she does a really good job at reading small words and short books. 
Playing with friends- we have a few great neighbor friends here and have made some friends at preschool and Lucy loves playing with all of them.
Princesses and babies- I would say these are the top two toy categories she is into right now.  She loves anything to do with taking care of babies (and usually gets Hank on board to "play baby" with her) and has been really into the whole Disney princess thing (despite not having seen most of the movies!)
Cooking- after quiet time and her show, we usually have a bit more time when Hank is still sleeping and Lucy has been loving helping me make dinner and will help make muffins and cookies with me too. 

 Discipline - we are still doing time outs, although Lucy rarely needs much discipline.  She is very sensitive and typically reacts just to me yelling at/correcting her.  We have been using the 1,2,3 Magic method and it seems to work great with her... I usually only get to 2 and she knows I mean business, stops the behavior and avoids a time out.  The main thing she typically gets in trouble for is messing with her brother (although in her defense he does a lot of messing too!)... but typically a quick break for both of them solves most problems.  Fortunately, for siblings, I would say we got pretty lucky in how well Lucy and Hank get along.  She has been getting a bit more of an attitude lately, especially when overtired, but this is something I just try to talk with her about and treat with lots of love and snuggles... for this little snuggly girl, that usually seems to solve the problem!

 Overall I would describe Lucy as smart, outgoing, polite, snuggly, loving, caring, adaptable and a leader. 

We love you so much baby girl!  So glad I have you to play with every day and to help care for your baby brother and sister.  You are an amazing daughter and sister, can't wait to see all you become!

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