Petra is Three!

With Silas, I feel like, “Wow, you’re five already?” but with Petra, it’s more like, “How are you only three?” She thinks she’s at least five, and acts like it most of the time.

At three, Petra:

• Builds with real Legos (no more Megablox and Duplos for this girl!)
• Reads to me every night (slowly).
• Has very specific ideas about what she will wear (never mind the weather) and how she will or will not have her hair done (prefers it messy, which drives me crazy).
• Loves playing with “little figures” with Silas, but her favorite toys are the “peg girls” aunt Katie made her for Christmas last year.
• Likes to have quiet, totally the opposite of Big Brother.
• Has a bit of a crush on “Miss Bly,” the library director at the North River Library.
• Is awesome at puzzles, completing 50-piece ones herself, and any game that requires visual memory, like Enchanted Forest and Memory.
• Loves to paint with watercolors.
• Goes to “play school” at Bridgewater College, Sunday school, and homeschool co-op, with almost no problem except that she has some anxiety if she thinks that Silas will be in a different building, in which case she just refuses.
• Can count to … 20 ish?
• Still has a hard time with bedtime, but is getting better about it (::fingers crossed::)
• Unlike Silas, has a very strong awareness of girls vs. boys, and often will refuse to play with boys other than Silas and Carlos.
• Is a great helper when she wants to be, especially with unloading the dishwasher and folding the laundry.
• Would prefer to do nearly anything besides watch TV, even if it’s her favorite show (Daniel Tiger). She’s sort of vaguely interested, but doesn’t make it through the whole 20-minute episode.
• Is great at telling people she loves them.

Stuff I’m hoping changes this year:

• Learning to make friends. She likes other people, but she’s pretty introverted. She says she doesn’t have any friends, and this is sort of true.
• Getting better at sharing. It’s an age appropriate thing, but I’m ready for her to be as good about it as Silas is. I have to keep reminding myself that he had trouble sharing at this age, too.

Overall, we’ve had a great year with Petra. She’s becoming more independent and learning so much and so quickly! She’s still very much a mama’s girl, though, and I have to admit, I kind of like that. She’s a snuggler, and I love snuggling her.