Motherhood is a wild ride. Can that be said enough? River is three now and a whole person. She has thoughts and opinions all her own. She is a little adventurer, exploring the world with binoculars and climbing any surface that is still long enough. Gone is my baby needing to be held all the time. Now she is an independent, curious, amazing human.
We put her in preschool to socialize with other children. River took to it like a fish to water. Going to school is one of her favorite things and has been something that has made parenthood easier. She gets to go outside, play with children her age, and do crafts while we get to work, clean, and hang out without her for a few hours a day. That alone time is more important than I ever realized.
The preschool is a Spanish-immersion school. Her teachers speak almost exclusively in Spanish to the kids. She can count and sing in Spanish. She understands her teachers and can speak in Spanish on topics that they have covered in class. Now my husband and I are dedicating time to learning Spanish. We love that River is learning to speak the language at school, but we hope that we can encourage her to be bilingual if it is also at home. Thankfully, we have a history of understanding a chunk of Spanish due to where we spent our childhood. Now it’s just a matter of bringing back that auditory understanding and finally learning to speak it.
Potty training has mostly been a success. River only needs a pull-up for bedtime and long car rides. The next thing we want to teach her is to “try” even when she doesn’t think she has to go. We believe that will help with car rides. We are calling it a “tactical wee” like from the show Bluey.
She still likes Daniel Tiger, however, Frozen and Bluey are currently her true loves. She was spoiled for her 3rd birthday with all the family gifting toys from those two franchises. She might even have the entire line of Bluey figurines. I’ve been too afraid to check. My husband and I genuinely never know if we should give her gifts on her birthday and holidays due to how loved she is by everyone else. We even considered returning her Christmas present (before she opened it) because she had been showered by family first.
River is such a little helper. She picks out her clothes and can mostly get dressed all by herself (shirts still cause her problems). Zippers, buttons, and shoes are all well within her skills. She helps us empty the dishwasher and can help set & clear the dining room table. She even helps pick up her toys so long as we make a game out of it. She loves to help us carry groceries and she cleans up her spills on her own. Honestly, she gets grumpy when I tell her I don’t need help with something.
She asks questions all the time. Her favorite one this week has been “why are we stopping” every. single. time. the. car. slows. down. She’s heard the answer enough about “red means stop” and “green means go” that she will answer her own question by explaining to us what the lights mean.
Needless to say, I think she’s perfect. Even when she’s a butthead. Parenthood is a fascinating adventure, and we are still so early in the journey.
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