One, two, three!

Yesterday was the bug's third birthday. She opened presents first thing in the morning, took a present for her class to school, and got to go to her favorite restaurant for dinner after school-and-work. All in all it was a pretty good day.




Now she is obsessed with a sense of order. Things have to happen a certain way in a certain pattern or she will get thrown off, especially in the morning or when her blood sugar is low on the way home from school. If she were older it would be OCD; at this age it's apparently normal although I think "normal" is a word basically devoid of meaning if this is what it looks like.

She will break down into tears if not allowed to open the door into her school by herself. Only she can get her backpack off the hook, zip her lunchbag, brush her teeth. We are right in the middle of the "all by myself" stage, and all this independence can be a bit time-consuming. It takes time for little fingers to undo knots, to turn faucet knobs, to zip zippers.

But there are all the new good parts: she loves watercolor painting and coloring and will make me pictures of trees, flowers, and planets all day long. She's taken to carrying empty blankets around the house all bunched up in her arms, calling them her "babies" and snuggling them to nap. (Meanwhile her dolls sit in the closet; take note, all ye who love dollies.) She's building block towers, scrubbing floors, and helping empty the silverware from the dishwasher. Housework is super-fascinating and she wants to help with everything. And she's starting to be coordinated enough to be able to water flowers, have tea parties, and kick various sporting goods around the backyard.

My favorite story this week is about a boy in her class. I always ask her who she played with on the way home from school. Wednesday she said, "Ryan," which is a name she hasn't mentioned before. He is one of the older children who only come over to her building for after-school care. I asked her what they played with, and she said, "Baseball. And soccer ball. And football." I asked her if she did the throwing or the catching, and she said, "I just played with Ryan. If you want to play with Ryan you have to talk about balls."

Matt said, "I think she's just figured men out for about the next ten years."

I think three is my most favorite age yet.