Trois

Tess had her 3-year-old annual checkup yesterday, and she checked out as a healthy specimen.  She weighs 30 lbs. (45th percentile) and is 38 inches tall (65th percentile).  She's meeting all the benchmarks at this age and didn't even need any shots.  (Although she did get a fingerprick.  "Mom, it a baby shot, not a big shot.")  The doctor wasn't concerned about our lack of potty training progress.  I guess she'll do it when she's ready.

A quick peek at some of Tess' creative undertakings.  She does not the house to be too quiet, so she likes  to listen to music and she loves dancing.  

She also likes to set up "tea parties" with her friends all over the house.  The following are common scenes:

Tess likes being at home and doing her own thing, but she's had a tough time with going out lately.  She has a really hard time with mornings.  She loves to snuggle on the couch and watch TV and she can spend 2 hours eating breakfast.  Getting her ready to go anywhere before noon is a real challenge.

She gets particularly worked up if it's a social situation.  This week, she's thrown tantrums about going to church, going to playgroup, going to exercise group at church and going to the gym.  She'll cry and scream and come up with any number of excuses why she can't go.  "The kids take my toys!  The kids take my coat!  The kids take my baby brother!"  Once we actually make it to any of those places, she does fine and usually doesn't want to leave when it's time to go.  But there's just no reasoning with her beforehand.

She has these kind of tantrums periodically and then she seems to outgrow them, so I'm trying to ride this cycle out.  Granted, she has had to adjust to a number of changes around here lately. 

And for the most part, she's taken it all in stride.