Three and a half

Rhiannon is exactly 3 and a half years old today.
She is turning into such a big girl! I am sorry to say that I don't know exactly how tall she is, but she seems to be a tiny bit taller than her buddies -- maybe 98-100 cm tall? And she weighs 17.5 kgs (~39 lbs). She is recently very into wearing skirts or dresses every day and she wants her hair in "big" braids. I have started braiding her hair, but she just gets mad when I do because the braids are not big enough. That's when I throw in a pitch for eating all of her dinner, brushing and washing her hair, and getting lots of sleep because that is how to grow long strong hair which can turn into big braids.

Anyway, Rhiannon is very independent. When I see her with other kids, I see that she does what she wants to rather than what other people are doing. Sometimes those activities coincide and she seems happy to play with others (making sand cakes and trying to sell them, riding bikes, playing mama and baby) but other times I see her go off on her own and swing or just dig in the sand. I doubt she is unusual in this way, but I am happy to observe this. Sometimes. When her independence takes the form of resourcefully finding a stool to climb up and unlock the front door, then put her shoes and jacket on and get her bike out of the shed to ride around on the driveway...we are not so thrilled. But she is not trying to be sneaky or naughty, she just knows what she wants and she gets on with it! Part of me is proud of her for this, but the rest of me is very worried.

Her favorite activities lately have been doing jigsaw puzzles, reading "magazines" (actually just books) in bed, singing Mamma Mia songs, jumping on the trampoline, and looking after her baby "Maria Isabel". She loves watching "Hwyl Cwac Cwac" (a Welsh cartoon about a duck) and "Mary Poppins" but the TV doesn't get switched on very often these days when it is light outside all the time.

Our little Rhiannon is a very social girl. She is scarily comfortable asking questions to people that she doesn't know very well (usually "what are you doing? where are you going?" type questions in Norwegian) and then carrying on a conversation with them. So she knows the names of all the parents of her classmates at barnehage and she recognizes their cars too! She also is very good at tractor-spotting: Rhiannon can spot a New Holland tractor (her favorite make) from an impressive distance.

Rhiannon gets very excited by berries or juice of any sort, she doesn't like mushrooms or tomatoes, and her favorite food is still pølser (hot dogs) with ketchup. She always eats her breakfast, usually most of her lunch, and sometimes all her dinner but that one is a struggle. She is good at sleeping though - 11 or 12 hours each night is the norm and there is no fight to get into bed. She is a little sweetie most of the time, but she is of course fully capable of being a grouchy irritable little skunk also! I guess she is just doing her job of being a three and a half year old :-)