Three!

 Three years ago today - in fact, three years less 23 minutes from right now - we were in the hospital having Nina. I can't believe she's 3, although I've kind of been thinking of her as my three-year-old for a couple of months because she just doesn't seem 2 at all. I got one of the emails, from mumsnet or babycentre or whatever, about 'your child at 36 months'. It said that she'll be able to make 3-4 word sentences with good grammar! Well ... Nina can say things like: "well, I'm not going to be afraid of the rain anymore, because if it rains, I'll just wear my wellies, but the rain does sometimes hit me in the eye ... so we should bring an umbrella". She knows most of the letters. She can pick them out on the keyboard, and when prompted by what sound comes next, can type simple words: Nina, Mummy, Papa, Gramma (obviously I didn't bother with Grandma), cot, cat, etc. She can pick them out of a pile of floating letters in the bath. She can scoot so fast on her scooter, she can balance a 2-wheeler with no pedals. She can sing, and with reasonable accuracy she can repeat a simple sung phrase though it helps if she happens to like the words. She can jump, and can even hop on one foot. She can do somersaults. She can hold herself up, hips to a bar, and flip over upside down. She can count. She can play memory, with a deck of cards. She can make very quick work of a 15-piece puzzle. She can assemble her toy plane with her little screwdriver (prompting the occasional very inappropriate-sounding comment about 'screwing'). 
  I told her that if we'd had two babies (instead of just Annika), I would have gone crazy. She later said that if we had one of Pingu's babies, there would be two and Mummy would be crazy. She got her doll baby, put it beside Annika and said "now you're crazy, Mummy!". We were walking to the zoo and I said I had two girls, and she said, no, there are three girls (counting me). I asked how many we'd be if Papa was here, and she said '4'. And if Papa and Andrew were here? --5. That was more than a month ago. She can understand that we don't do certain things because it might make people feel sad or hurt, and she can offer to do things that I've said will make me happy. She used to say that when Annika came, she'd hold her for me so I could run. She knows that we don't talk about fat tummies because people might feel sad. She wanted to wait before we had our cookies so that Andrew could share some.
  Perhaps most impressively of all - if it is explained to her that it's still sleep time, because it's 6am in a hotel room and we have jet lag - she can talk quietly to herself for 15 minutes and then go back to sleep. 


Nina - will you ever read this? Know that I am insanely proud of you, all the amazing things you do, how kind and loving you are, how you can understand how people feel, how gentle and sweet you are to your new sister. The day you were born transformed us completely. I'll never have a day when I don't think of you and love you and wonder at how much you've made my life richer. 

Three years old today!

My view from here

I'll post properly soon. Promise. Here's a photo to try out this blogger app on my phone...