As promised, here is another post celebrating my favorite three year old, Anna Kate Rotman. Not that you all don't already know all about her, but so that we can look back someday and see what our AK was like when she turned three...
Anna is still mostly our sweet and calm girl. She is consistently praised for being well behaved, and the perfect picture of Anna Kate is when we go to the library for story time- she will sit directly in front of the reader, while her peers run around (sometimes in front of her) and continue to focus on the story. She enjoys going many places and has rarely, if ever, had tantrums in public (knock on wood?!). Going out to meals or running errands is usually pretty easy with her!
She can also get a little wild, and loves to run around with her Daddy the most. I have loved recently seeing her become more independent and courageous in her physical play. She will now attack most playground obstacles without requests for help (though it helps that pregnant mommy can't help too much) and even goes down large slides alone! This is not something she was doing before winter. She doesn't mind getting dirty when outside, but when she is done playing in something messy she will immediately request a bath or clean hands.
Anna is doing very well with her preschool concepts, and is still most into colors (over letters or numbers though she knows those too). She will tell you all about primary colors and which combinations make other colors. She specifies specific colors, like "is this mint green?". She also loves knowing everyone's favorites, although she does not believe that people can have the same favorite and may assign you a new (color, princess, food) if it overlaps with someone else's that she knows. She really enjoys jigsaw puzzles and her pattern bears along with other games and learning activities.
AK loves spending time with her family. She is about 90% over her fear of men/boys, although she still has her moments (just the other day she would not play with the 10 year old boy next door). She enjoys playing with friends sometimes, and when she does she is very into it. She has even started to make some friends at the playground/in public.
The night before Anna Kate's birthday, I filled her room with her leftover birthday balloons. Being my rule following child, I know she knew they were there, but did not get down to play with them until I came in the room!
Good Morning, 3 year old princess!!
Daddy brought her home a doughnut surprise for her birthday breakfast the night before. She was very excited about her CHOCOLATE doughnut for breakfast- though she had also been requesting Chicken Minis for her birthday breakfast- so we did both! (Chickfila has been having a free breakfast entree on Wednesdays ;).
My pretty birthday girl in her "3" shirt for her birthday!
My favorite crooked little girl smile!
She kept scooting closer to the camera, good thing she is cute!
Little ham!
I'm not quite sure when she grew those legs and turned 16!
A few more photos of how we spent her birthday...
As requested, Chicken Minis from Chick-fil-A. Good thing they are having "free breakfast" on Wednesdays... she only ate one.
Next up, the park! Of course the swings were first!
She was quite proud to climb these twisty-climby-things. She does request that you help her down, however!
Next, we went to cook-in-front-of-you Japanese with Daddy. Or as Anna Kate says, "they cooked on the table!". She enjoyed the dinner entertainment, and the rice with shrimp sauce. She was not a big fan of the fire, though!
Demonstrating proper form of getting every last bit of soup. She liked it!
Mesmerized. She would smile at you, but then was very serious watching the chef cook!
When we got home, it was time to open a few little presents from Mommy and Daddy!
The big winner of the night, Cinderella dress up!
She insisted on wearing it to eat her birthday ice cream!
