Rebecca's 3 Year Check Up/Updates

It's official.  Our "baby" girl is 3!  So hard to believe.  She is growing by leaps and bounds lately it seems.

Today was her 3 year check up.  She passed with flying colors as usual.  The doctor said she is developmentally very advanced as always.  After Rebecca asked about and talked to the doctor about his instruments he asked her if she had her PhD program all set up yet :)  It's obvious that a year can make a big difference.  Rebecca used to start crying the moment we stepped into the room.  Today she was happy and chatting with everyone.  She even told the doctor, "I was so excited to come see you!"  Everything checked out well.  And Rebecca even counted to 30 for the doctor (up to this point I was wondering if he thought she could even talk because of how shy/scared she was when we would go).  Today she asked and answered all kinds of questions.

Rebecca has definitely grown a LOT in the last year.  Over the winter she went from a size 2T to a size 4T.  And her feet went from size 7 to size 9!  Today her measurements confirmed how much she's growing.  She weighs 34 lbs. and is 37 1/4" tall (she was 27 lbs. and 33 1/2" tall at 2).  She is still right around 50th% for height and between 50th and 75th% for weight.  She hovers right around 50% for both...pretty average.  According to how doctors predict height, she should grow to be about 5'7".  But we'll see.  Maybe she has some strong Voogt or Van Heukelum genes in her that will give her some height.

We're finding that she might really have some strong Van Heukelum genes as it's becoming more and more likely that she is left handed (only relatives that are left handed are Mary's aunt, uncle and great grandpa).  We know she for sure has Van Heukelum feet (just like mommy :).

Overall it was a great check up.  Rebecca is growing well and developing well.  She's one smart little girl.  We'll go back in a year for her 4 year check up.

As always Rebecca is a very busy girl at home.  She has such an imagination and is always busy with some doll or stuffed animal, making them do stuff/act things out.  We have many princess balls, trips to the park, days at school and trips to the store here.

One of Rebecca's recent changes/accomplishments is sleeping/napping in her new room, in her big girl bed.  The transition took a couple weeks, but now she is sleeping great!  She loves her room and bed.  Right now she's a fairly sound sleeper.  Hopefully that will continue even with a crying baby nearby :)

Rebecca is getting very good at counting.  So far she can go up to 30.  She could do more, but by the time she gets to 30 she's usually sick of counting :P  She has also started counting on her fingers, doing her best to put one up at a time :)  Not sure how she learned that.  She just started doing it one day on her own.  She is also getting better at actually counting objects.  She is also doing very well with her letters.  She has known all of her uppercase and lowercase letters and their sounds for a while.  She knows how to spell a few words and recognizes them if she sees them written.  She recently learned how to spell Voogt :)  Rebecca is still a bit too long.

 

Rebecca has also really started getting into coloring and writing.  Before she could only focus on coloring for about 30 seconds.  Now she will sit and color for a while.  And she is very good about coloring specific objects and trying to stay in the lines.  It's quite impressive to look at the pages she is coloring now (very intentional, coloring individual things) versus what they looked like just a couple months ago (one color scribbled over the whole page).  Rebecca continues to try to write her letters.  Some are easier than others.  But she's definitely getting more into it.  She is also very good at tracing a path/line.  She has a lot more control with her writing now than she did not that long ago.  And as I mentioned, most of her coloring/writing is done with her left hand.  She switches to the right hand once in a while for a few seconds.  But then switches back.  The doctor said that if she is doing both right now that is good developmentally.  She is using both sides of her brain and already becoming a good multi-tasker :)

We are winding down with our actvities.  Monday will be our last day of gymnastics.  Rebecca has done well, but we're ready to be done.  We only have a few weeks of Kindermusik left.  And one more MOPS meeting.  We're looking forward to having lots of free time this summer.

Aside from that we're having fun playing with all of Rebecca's toys (especially her new birthday toys!).  She's helping Daddy play his drum.  And she just got a sleeping bag that she seems to love.  It will be her new spot to sleep when we travel now.

It's hard to believe Rebecca is 3.  She will always be our baby.  But she really is such a big girl now.  And anxious to be a big sister in a couple weeks.  We're all looking forward to it!