3 years

Current stats: 38 inches tall; 33 pounds
Tooth count: She’s got the full set of 20.
New tricks: full sentences, including lots of French; running, climbing, jump spins, helping in the kitchen. Oh, yeah and she’s READING!
New words/phrases: She’s got the pleasantries down. “Hello, my name is Parker.” “Nice to meet you.” We’re getting lots of spontaneous “please,” “thank you,” and “I love you.”
It seems like she’s always talking; to us, to herself, to her toys. She has a continuous stream of consciousness thing going. It’s amazing and irritating at the same time. The only time she’s quiet is when she’s playing an iPad game or watching a movie.
THE LATEST
We’ve been in New York for a month already. Life is busy but I’ve been trying to keep the blog updated with photos of our city adventures. In a month, we’ve been to the Children’s Museum, a marionette show in Central Park, ridden the subway all over the place, been to most of the playgrounds on the west side of the park, ridden the Bryant Park Carousel, eaten a hotdog from a cart, she’s started attending Bright Horizons early education daycare, and attended a classmate’s birthday party.
For her third birthday, we decided against a party. We just didn’t have the time or energy to do another one. So we took her to F.A.O. Schwarz flagship store on Fifth Avenue. It’s closing in July (the rent’s too damn high) so now was as good a time as any to visit.

We got there about 10 minutes before they opened and before the weekend crowds got crazy. Can you tell she’s excited to go in?

She got to see the toy soldier open the door and was the first kid through. I don’t think she even realized it was a store. Maybe she thought it some kind of kid museum, where nothing is for sale. We just wandered around with her while she went “Oh, look at that!” for two hours.

She ended up with a few new books and a plush WALL-E. Of course she had to take a turn on the Big Piano. She almost wasn’t heavy enough for it to make any sound but she managed.

After that, we had a very fancy afternoon tea/lunch in the Palm Court at The Plaza Hotel. The children’s menu was directly from Eloise, the main character in Kay Thompson’s books about a little girl who lives at the famous hotel.

There was champagne, hot tea and yummy treats for me and Andy. The Biscuit got amazing little scones, tea sandwiches, desserts and pink lemonade. All peanut free, of course.

After lunch, she got a well-earned nap. Then we spent some time with family in New Jersey until bedtime. It was a super-fun day but, even without throwing another 40-person party, I earned some rest myself. I hope she remembers these little experiences or maybe she’ll read this blog in the future. Cheers!