On Monday, August 10th, Gemma turned 3 years old! This was the first year she really understood that it was her birthday, and she was so excited for it! We would count the number of sleeps until her birthday in the lead up to it. We had a pretty laid back day on her actual birthday, having spent the previous week in Louisburgh and having had her birthday party the day before. She opened her presents from us when she woke up:
Then, she got to enjoy one of her birthday cupcakes after lunch!
When Paul got home from work, he made Rice Krispie buns with/for Gemma. His mom had always done this on his birthday, so he wanted to do the same for Gemma!
At 3 years old, Gemma:
-Is about 90% potty trained. She still wears a nappy at nap and bedtime, but we haven't had any accidents in a long time!
-Has really taken to her big girl bed well. She gets into it when we put her to bed at night, and doesn't get out of it until we go in to her in the morning (knock on wood!) She has slept in beds in Mayo and Kerry as well with no problems! She continues to take an afternoon nap as well, but not all the time in creche. I think she doesn't like to miss out on any action there!
-Continues to be a tall girl! She measures 3 feet, 3 3/8 inches tall, which puts her between the 70 and 95 percentile. She's taller than her daddy and auntie Marie were at this age (we made a mark inside a closet door at Paul's parent's house where their heights are marked). She weights approximately 38 pounds, which puts her above the 95 percentile. She's wearing size 4/5 clothes.
-Loves counting and can count to 20 on her own. We have to count everything- pieces of food on the plate, number of cars in the carpark, etc. She can also recognize each digit, and we often have to stop and call out the numbers on license plates when we're walking through carparks!
-She also loves shapes and colors and we take turns 'teaching' each other. She can name circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, star, diamond, and heart.
-Gemma also likes letters, and often asks what each one is. She can recognize all the letters in her name, along with 'K'.
-Continues to enjoy being read to and can recite some of her favourite books almost word for word.
-Loves Frozen, Doc McStuffins, Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam, and Thomas the Tank Engine- watching them, reading books about them, and playing with their toys!
-Enjoys playing with Play Doh, blowing bubbles, playing doctor, and playing with her toy kitchen.
-Gemma still loves music and singing, and a lot of the time she sings to herself, sometimes making up her own songs.
-For the past couple of weeks, she's been telling us she wants to be a nurse when she grows up!
-Has become a lot more perceptive to non-verbal expressions. She'll ask, 'what hurts?' if someone grimaces, and she wonders what people are worried about in certain pictures in books. Overall she is quite concerned that people are 'ok'.
-I think she is a bit of a planner like me. Every night before bed she asks who will wake her in the morning, who will drop her to creche, and who will collect her. She also asks what we're going to do each day when she wakes up in the morning.
Gemma is a sweet, clever, funny little girl, and we are so proud of her!
