Faith - 3 year old pictures

My friend and terrific photographer, Elise, took Faith's pictures at Rincon Valley Park. Faith completely cooperated and Elise took great photos. Here are a few.

Faith 3 Years Old

My baby is now officially a little kid and no longer a toddler. While I'm sad to see the baby/toddler years officially over with, I'm also hoping that she'll move into a phase of being more agreeable and that she'll have a lot less fits.

We've noticed over the past few months that she is not using her left hand very often. She used to switch back and forth between both hands whether she was eating, drawing, throwing, cutting, among other things. Now she seems to be favoring her right, but when she uses her left she is just as skilled. It will be interesting to see if she ends up being ambidextrous or right handed. I think we'll encourage her to use both at least for the time being.

At her 3 year old check she weighed 30 pounds 2 oz. fully clothed and was 38.5" tall. That puts her in the 80th percentile for height and about the 45% for weight. However, her weight to height drops down to about the 15%, meaning she is tall and thin, just like her big brother. She far exceeds all of the skills/abilities the doctor says a 3 year old should be able to do, so in that regard she is doing wonderfully.

She has recently learned to spell both her and Bryce's name. She can count past 20, knows all of her ABCs, and recognizes some written letters and numbers.

She is thrilled that she gets to start ballet next week. I hope she enjoys it as much as she thinks she will. She took a trial Lil' Kickers class a few weeks ago and said she enjoyed it. However, every week when I ask if she wants to go back she tells me not this week. Perhaps soccer won't be her thing, or maybe she just prefers a quiet morning at home with mommy. I'll keep offering it, as we'd like her to be well-rounded and have lots of experiences.

Faith refuses to wear anything but a dress. I'm lucky if I can get her to wear leggings with it when the weather is cold. On rare occasions I can get her to wear a skirt. Her requirement is that the dresses/skirts twirl, if they don't go out enough when she spins she won't wear them. She is also very into her new pink rain boots and likes to make fashion statements by wearing them with her pretty dresses.

Bryce - Tigers Soccer Team

Bryce played his first season of soccer with the Northwest Oaks Youth Soccer Club. He was on the Tigers - #24. Practice started the week before school started, which was wonderful since he met a few other kids starting Kindergarten at Riebli. None of the kids on his team ended up in his class, but at least it meant a few more familiar faces on the playground. a number of kids from his class are on other teams so he gets to play against them.

Bryce has really enjoyed his first experience playing on a real team. He's learned a lot about teamwork. He's learned that being the one to actually score the goal is not always what the game is about, but rather that passing the ball to a teammate that is in a better position to kick a goal is a good thing and playing defense is important too.

While he's not the absolute best player on the field, he definitely has shown that he has athletic ability. He lacks a little of the agression and drive at this point, but his skills have greatly improved. Most importantly, he's had a ton of fun!