K is so amazing these days. Just measured in at 107.3cm tall and 15.5kg at 3y10mo old. Birthday is only 2 months away! And she starts JK in September - we just have to register her in Feb. She carries on wonderful conversations now and asks very good questions too. She can be a little hesitant around new people, but isn't super shy. She even begged to come to a medical staff association meeting with me one night (even though DH was home and she could have stayed) so that she could see what Mama does and meet some of my colleagues. Everyone commented on how well-behaved she was, which made me very proud.
K definitely knows her own mind and certainly tries to manipulate things to work her way at times. I take that as a good sign, because she's overall a very compliant and good child.
We've had her in a lot more activities since last Sept. She did great in her first swimming lessons (4 kids to 1 instructor) and progressed to the next level with two classes to go as we were going to be away on vacation in Barbados. She's still not keen to jump in without holding the instructors hands, but will now dive fully under water to try to pick something off the pool bottom. While in Barbados, she was very happy swimming in the ocean with me with her puddle jumper on, and even let go of my hand for quite some time to motor around by herself. We went on a catamaran cruise one day and they helped her to snorkel for the first time while wearing a life jacket. The crew who was towing her along on a red buoy managed to attract the local sea turtle up close for her to have a good look and even almost touch. She now wants to go scuba diving with me. I was excited to hear she can train at the age of 13, so only a little over 10 more years to go.
One of the more difficult activities was Sport Pack, which involved a group of 8 kids and 2 instructors doing a different sport every week. Sometimes there was pushing bean bags around with hockey sticks, sometimes bouncing a ball, sometimes soccer etc. Caregivers were kicked out of the gym, and she apparently cried through a good portion of the first class. My nanny got to go back in, but she still didn't participate well. I took her to the next class after a busy morning in the drop in program at the local school plus a visit to the Early Years centre, and was the only mother who was called into the gym after she turned to face the wall and started wailing and wouldn't tell them what was wrong. She wanted to hang out on the bench by me and kept saying she was too tired, thirsty, hungry etc. She just wanted to go home. I had a couple tiny boxes of raisins I found in her backpack and was then a mean mother and made her stick it out. I got the impression she'd been frustrated when she couldn't do things well and that the coaches weren't great at encouraging her or helping her a bit more than some of the older kids. I told her we'd go home and she'd have a chocolate and get nail polish put on for the first time as a special treat if she finished off the class (not above bribing), and she very reluctantly did so, with me stepping in to help her hold the hockey stick and shoot once in a while. The next week, DH called me at 3pm at work to ask what they should do: she'd been crying off and all day about not wanting to go to Sport Pack. I told him I thought our nanny should take her, since I didn't want her to learn at the age of 3 that it's ok to just quit if you're having a hard time. I thought she could do with a life lesson that you need to persevere and it will become more fun later on. Many of the nurses I talked to at work thought I was crazy and should just pull her from the class. I made it there 15min into the class and again was in the gym cheering her on from the sideline and encouraging her to get back in there and participate. I told her it was ok to not be good, but that she needed to try out the activities and would get better at them, as well as to ask the coaches for extra help if she wasn't sure what she should do. She did pretty well throughout and even finished off the class. I think things got better from there, and by the end of the 8 weeks she said she liked Sport Pack, so I was pretty proud of that.
Gymnastics and Ballet were her other two activites, the first one with a friend who's a maniac on the monkey bars like K, and the other running for about 8 months with the same group of 8 kids. Last Sunday, she went to ice skating lessons for the first time with my stepmother while I was busy in the hospital on call. Sounded like she had a lot of fun there too, so I'm looking forward to getting on skates for the first time in about 9 years to go with her tomorrow.
K loves some games now, which makes me feel a little less guilty about buying too many board games for her to play with. DH is always mad at me for getting her too many toys, but hey, I get bored easily and want to have things to do with her that I also find interesting. She's slowly getting the hang of snakes and ladders, though moving her piece properly has its challenges for her. She's becoming a total whiz at Spot It though. I started off counting to 10 aloud to give her a chance to see the match before I said what mine was, but now she's faster than me a lot of the time. I look forward to playing many more with her in the future.
K remains relatively adventurous with food, though pasta and sushi are still her two favourites. She showed her manipulation/acting skills when we went to a sushi place in Dec where she'd been given complimentary ice cream with chocolate sauce during our first visit over a year ago. We only go there occasionally, but as she was being grumpy on the way there and said she didn't want to go eat, I reminded her that they'd thought she was so cute and they'd given her dessert. She perked right up, and I've never seen her say please and thank you or smile/flirt with a waitress so much before. She got that ice cream with chocolate sauce + whipping cream and sprinkles at the end of the meal. She might not need to read up on how to win friends and influence people!
K is incredibly good with smaller kids, and last summer had a couple 18 month olds that she sort of adopted to play with. She loves her friends' younger siblings, and keeps asking for us to have a baby that she can play with. My heart breaks a little every month when AF arrives. We've been trying semi-naturally with some months taking femara and some months not. I still have crappy luteal hormones and spot starting 2-3 days after I think I might have ovulated based on EWCM drying up. Having one child definitely doesn't cure IF or heal the invisible wounds it has created.
This past Christmas we had a nice visit with the same Santa we've had the previous two years (I'm kicking myself I didn't take her at 9mo), after three attempts thwarted by a different (and remarkably miserable-looking) Santa being there the first time as well as longish lineups.
My darling girl cooperated well aside from the usual fake forced smile grimace she tends to make as soon as a camera appears in sight. I hope this same Santa will be around for many years to come, as it's neat to see her grow from year to year.
K's favourite Christmas presents this year were her tiara, shiny princess slippers, and her wand. She's so very into princesses and dressing up and wearing dresses and tights all day every day. I don't quite know where she gets it from. She'd wear nail polish daily if she had her way.
K is very loving and cuddly, which I adore. She frequently tells me I'm the best Mama ever, and that she loves me to God and back, or to the stars and back. Papa is the best Papa ever. She hugs and kisses all the time and still loves to come and sit on my lap. She and her friends hug each other a lot, which is great. Her little friend O, a boy 3 months older than her, loves her too, and recently wrote her the sweetest letter saying: "K is my best friend. I love you very much. I hope you like green too. O". Love letters at age 3 - not bad!
I'd better sign off now and get to bed now, but will add on anything big I've forgotten shortly. We're both so grateful for having this miracle child in our lives. Thank God for giving her to us!
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