This is one of the last pictures we have with Caitlin sporting a little belly (July 2010). She has grown so fast recently that her belly has stretched out to almost nothing.
She's always hungry, clothes basically fall off her waist, She looks a lot older than she actually is. The last one is hard for me to help her with.
Caitlin is a social butterfly and loves to call everyone a "friend" but some kids are mean. The older the meaner. She looks to be about 5- and some 5 year old neighbors expect her to act at age 5. Problem being- she isn't 5 yet. She will still play, act, talk, relate like a 3.5 year old. After a bad interaction with these kids, I asked those neighbors not to come play for a while.
The good part of being 3 is sometimes you don't quite understand what just happened. I'm okay with that.
She is testing boundaries and learning limits right now which is challenging for us. She is so smart. She is writing letters and wants to know how to spell her favorite words. We are looking at words and pictures to help her learning early reading skills. We are not doing preschool yet. We have thought it through and decided against it this year for a few reasons: 1.) Her November birthday misses the September deadline for school enrollment, meaning she will not start kindergarten until she is nearly 6. If we started her now, she would be doing 2 years of preschool. 2.) Preschool isn't even required. Some kids go straight to kindergarten. We may or may not do this. 3.) I'm a stay at home mom. I don't really need school to serve as childcare. I like having her here most of the time. I miss her when she's away. 4.) I am working on preschool and kindergarten topics here and she is picking up quickly, she is so smart!