We began this 6 months pretty bossy 😉 “Send Mommy to me” was a regular sentence of yours for awhile. Over the months, you began to use “Hey Mommy” and “Hey Daddy” to begin many of your sentences; you love to interact verbally – we’ve seen a huge increase in your imaginative play. You love to be the teacher and have us act the student part. You’ll read books to us now, based on the pictures, but you are also pre-reading. In late May, you said to Mommy, “I don’t know these words, will you read them to me?” That made Mommy so very excited for you! You’re learning to read!!

Here’s a video of you pre-reading: https://youtu.be/ps6SfxrCDQw

You had your first dentist visit in late Jan 2017- you were still getting the final 4 molars at the time. Your second visit was in late May 2017 because you were complaining your teeth hurt. All your molars are in but you may be grinding your teeth and need to floss in the back where the teeth are close together. We’re so glad you are enjoying going to the dentist.

Academically, you love doing your tracing book – we do a few pages a month and work on pencil grip. You can spell your name and we practice writing it together. You recognize all your uppercase letters and most of the lowercase. We’re still working on counting to ’20’; ’15’ and ’16’ trip you up 🙂

Physically, you are now 37″ tall and 33 lbs. That’s 5″ of growth in the last 6 months; wow! You are very strong, love to dance, and love to run. Almost daily, you’ll say something to the effect of “Mommy, let’s go outside for a walk – it’s a beautiful day!” You thoroughly enjoy the outdoors.

We took a break from gymnastics beginning in April and also switched to a new PDO program through Platte Woods Methodist church. You’ll be attending preschool there starting in August and are loving your new teachers and friends there.

Your eldest sister, Lauryl, graduated HS this May! You were very excited to celebrate with her at her graduation party and had fun writing “advice” notes to her 😉

Some of Mommy and Daddy’s favorite memories from the past 6 months include:

1. Coloring in detail and trying to stay in the lines
2. An absolute adoration of all things “Frozen”, the movie – especially the character Elsa. You often say, “Mommy, let’s play Elsa! Put on your Elsa dress!” Your 3rd birthday party is, of course, a “Frozen” theme. #seenextblog
3. When it rains, you call it “drippin'” 🙂
4. You counted backwards from 10 to 1 in early May 2017. You also sang us the days of the week, a song you learned at PDO/school with Ms. Becky!
5. Your memory is incredible; you will quote lines from a movie after just one or two watchings. You say, “Remember when we went to Florida and played on the beach with Zoë”. It’s such fun to see your mind at work, Miriam!
6. You learned to play “Go Fish” with Daddy on 3.18.17. You’ve also been playing lots of memory games on the iPad.
7. “Winnin’!!!” You love to shout this anytime we transition. If Daddy says, let’s go to the car, you shout “Winnin’!!” and take off running to be the first! It’s hilarious. You’ll even shout it when you’re obviously behind. Your optimism is contagious!
8. You love the song, “Dirt on my Boots” by Jon Pardi so of course, so do we 🙂

Your personality continues to be cautious initially yet continually intense. You open up to others once you feel comfortable with them. You’re getting better about responding when an acquaintance asks you a question. We’re proud of your bravery and thoughtfulness in your responses, Miriam!

You are dressing yourself successfully about 75% of the time. You go to the bathroom on your own most of the time as well. Your independence is fun to watch – well, most of the time 😉

We moved to a new home the weekend of May 19th! You were super-excited and handled the weekend very well. We were leaving the new house after a couple weeks of living there, and you said, “Mommy … I like our new house!” with such a sense of pleasure. It makes Mommy and Daddy happy that you will likely/maybe/hopefully remember moving to this house 😉

Mommy took a new job, starting Jun 6th, with our church, Restore. You are handling all these changes really well; Mommy can definitely tell you are effected by them as you are more clingy and have had an accident a couple times. But you are a trooper. Your sweet disposition has remained; you and Mommy are learning our new routine and will settle in a little more each day.

To close year 3, we asked you some questions (on 7.8.2017). Here are your verbatim answers:

1. What is your name? M-i-r-i-a-m *yes, you spelled it out for me*

2. How old are you? 2

3. What makes you happy? Daddy

4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Elsa

5. What is your favorite food? blueberries – pink blueberries

6. Who do you like to spend time with? Daddy

7. What do you do really well? dance and do ballet and do Moana

8. What makes you laugh? Daddy

9. What are you afraid of? I don’t know

10. What is your favorite thing about Daddy? tickles and lay on Daddy and jump on him – jump, jump, jump, jump!

11. What do you like to do with Mommy? play and Chick-Fil-A

12. What do you like to do with your brother and sisters? play and play and play and play

13. What is your favorite book right now? “Olivia and the Missing Toy”

14. What is your favorite show? “Little Einsteins”

15. Where do you like to go? Chick-Fil-A and Daddy’s work

Miriam Elayne, Mommy and Daddy love you so! May you always rest assured that will never change or dilute.

–Mommy