At three, Iver weighs about 27 lbs (8%) and is about 3 ft. tall (~14%). He seems to have gone through a growth spurt recently, and now fits 2T pants (some 18mo-2 year shirts).
He sleeps through the night about 75% of the time in his own full bed in his room. We generally ignore the night wakings on the other nights, but they are still not extinguished. When he "sleeps through," he goes to bed around 8 or 8:30 and wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. (it's SUCH a bonus when it's after 5 a.m., although nothing, including bribes or a later bedtime, has seemed to make a consistent difference in making this happen more regularly). He takes a good post-lunch nap (usually 2 hours at home, probably about 1-1.5 hours at preschool). He still has the toddler ok-to-wake alarm clock in the room, but it doesn't really do anything to change behavior. We have taken the door monkey off the door in his room as he tends to stay in it (most of the time). One of us still has to lie next to him until he's asleep, a habit ("tradition") we're going to try to break soon, but it's working ok (I listen to podcasts to pass the quiet time and we often fall asleep!).
He is a great eater now (for all of my anxiety that he was going to starve himself to death by refusing solids. I cut him off of nursing a few days past age two, and that definitely helped). He loves: pizza, pasta, spicy hotdogs (with grilled onions), meat (except he, like mama, doesn't really like chicken) and meatballs, "baby pho," green beans, snap peas, pickles, and fruits of all kinds, particularly grapes, mandarins, longans, and raisins. He seems to consume 50% of his calories before noon, with large breakfasts including raisin bread, raisin bran or granola. He drinks 1-2 cups of whole milk per day, and loves sparkling water like I do (but also still water). He does have a sweet tooth and asks for "dessert" whenever it's available, although we serve it infrequently.
He is quite the communicator, and impresses with us with his perceptiveness and vocabulary. He makes up full stories and jokes. He knows words like "similar," "automatic," and constructs sentences with "nocturnal" and "accidentally." He has learned many "collective nouns" of groups of animals, so can rattle off "a parliament is a group of owls," "a leash is a group of foxes," etc. One day this week, when we were leaving preschool, he said "I just saw a murder (group of crows)!" He knows many Vietnamese words (more than I do, actually!). He knows all of his letters and can read "OPEN," "STOP," and "IVER" and a few more simple words, and tries to sign his name in at school. He has trouble pronouncing the "sp" sound ("spirit" is "firit," "spider" is "fider," etc...), but it's very cute.
He has been potty trained since just a tad after age 2, including for naps, but wears pull-ups at nighttime (since sleep has been such a battle, we're not ready to move to nighttime potty trips just yet).
He loves: books, stories, nursery rhymes, songs and singing (and playing "name that tune"), his magnet tiles and building towers, playing hide-and-seek and chase, arts and crafts, "helping" mama cook, pouring water into containers, lying on our blowing heater vents, running, jumping, climbing and playing outside at parks. He likes to do things his way and in particular orders. He doesn't get much screen time (he'll be engaged for up to 15 minutes of Zootopia, Sing, and Blues Clues on DVD), but does like watching Barney on YouTube while Kelvin showers and enjoys Facetiming/Skyping with family. We got him a *real* bike with training wheels for his birthday, and he is trying to get the strength to propel the pedals forward. He loves Costco trips with "papa" (when I am on call) and eating "out."
He hates: being told when and how to do something, getting lotion put on his dry skin, brushing his teeth, washing his hands or face, and wearing underwear other than those with Angry Birds on them.
He actually tolerates the (forward-facing) carseat quite well now.
He's still very much an energetic, intense and "strong-willed child," although discipline has been easier as he's gotten older, with him being able to fully understand consequences of fighting/disobeying/doing repetitive harmful or destructive behaviors when given warnings. I like the "1,2,3 Magic" and "Love and Logic" approaches to toddler discipline, and they seem very effective in him at this age, compared to a year ago, when some of the battles were endless and seemingly un-winnable. One day last week when he would not cooperate with the toothbrushing, we told him that he was going to lose his (school snack) fruit pouch if he continued, and he went on to lose it (and did not protest). When his preschool teacher asked him where his pouch was, he wouldn't admit that it was withheld because he was being naughty, but that he'd "lost it." :) So I guess we need to work on the truth-telling part of his story-telling, but that will come... He's apparently an empathetic, obedient and very easy-to-manage child at school, which is good (I guess!).
He is, most of the time, an incredibly fun and funny, animated 3-year-old who is excited to welcome his brother (who he has decided to name "Poopy") in a couple of months. I really love this age!
We started his big day waking up from a California-to-Virginia red-eye to visit my parents. He was pretty jet-lagged and cranky, despite a long nap, but enjoyed chasing park squirrels, opening some gifts, including a Magformers Robot set, and devouring a raisin-topped donut for "dessert"!
Thanks to auntie Kat for this montage
