"Help! I need somebody!"

There have been a few curious changes in Alana since she turned three.

The first is that she is super affectionate. She wants to hug and kiss us all the time, and tells me she loves me constantly. (Last Saturday she also told her sister she hated her for the first time, which made me sad, but hopefully that won't happen too often! And I think that had more to do with Charlotte getting into all her new toys than being three.)

Last week at this time Alana DID NOT WANT HELP for anything! In fact, a great way to motivate her to do something was for me to say "Do you want me to do it for you?" Now she suddenly wants help on everything! She wanted help telling her sister sorry after hitting her yesterday. She wanted help picking up a toy and putting it away. She wanted help putting toothpaste on her toothbrush (which she has always LOVED doing by herself.) It's just weird. Do most three-year-olds do this? She's calmed down quite a bit from last week's illness, so it's mostly endearing, except when I'm trying to clean the house. She also likes to help ME a lot, which I appreciate.

Is it normal for three-year-olds to be obsessed with getting married? I'd like her to wait at least 20 more years. Right now she's telling me "I did get married, and I did get pregnant. I have a baby in my tummy." Oh boy...

This morning Alana was drawing with her aquadoodle (very cool toy!) and lately she has been drawing letters. Occassionally the letters she draws even look like letters. Now, I am big on letting kids go their own pace with reading and writing. She started doing this ALL on her own. I'm kind of excited. She drew a letter L and it was backwards. So I drew it correctly next to the one she had drawn. She turned it upside down and said "look, it's a 7!" I was amazed. What a bright kid I have!

If you want to know about the Montessori preschool and tot activities I have started, check out my other blog: http://homecanbe.blogspot.com