Lucia is Three

I have not posted so much about what Lucia can do - mostly because after hitting all the big milestones (crawling, walking, talking, running, telling us what to do) - her accomplishments don't seem quite as drastic as a younger child's (like Magdalena). But Lucia has some definite quirks that are worth writing down.

For one, she has this cute little mouth twist that she does to prevent herself from smiling when she is being flattered or really enjoying something but knows that people are watching her. She kind of tries to frown, and if you do anything to prompt her (like tickle!) - she'll break out in bursts of laughter!

Lucia also loves to sing - I often catch her just singing to herself with words she makes up, sometimes in a tune that I know, and sometimes not. For example, I recently taught her a song about the moon being up too soon (Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you are up too soon, the sun is still in the sky! Go back to bed and cover up your head and wait till the day goes by!). She will start to murmur the tune to herself in the car, or while walking out of school, wherever. Once I realize what she is singing and start to sing along, she'll break out in full song too.  She can also sing Happy Birthday in both English (since she was about 18 months) and now in Chinese!  I tried to teach her it in Japanese, but she informed me that I was wrong - tanjyobi does NOT mean birthday!

Lucia has recently started to "copy" Magdalena! She'll crawl up the stairs next to Magdalena, she'll stumble/walk like Magdalena, she'll even try to "talk" like Magdalena (lots of "da-da!"s). I can tell that she loves her little sister, even though often she'll take Magdalena's toys or books, especially if M has grabbed one that Lucia considers to be "hers" or a "big girl book."

At school, Lucia plays with a plastic baby doll all the time. First she takes all its clothes off (our baby dolls at home are also constantly in the nude) - the teachers said that when they tried to re-dress the baby, Lucia just removed the clothes again! Then she lays it to bed in the small wooden bed they have, and covers it up with blankets to go to sleep. She tells me when I come to get her that the baby is sleeping. This happens all the time at home too, where I routinely find the infamous naked "Baby Dear" covered to her chin with Lucia's blanket in various makeshift beds - the coffee table, the art table, kitchen chairs, Lucia's bed, Magdalena's crib, one time even the ball pit!

It is also pretty amazing how Baby Dear seems to be growing with Magdalena. Just a few weeks ago, I observed Lucia helping Baby Dear "walk" by holding her hands above her head and pivoting one foot in front of the other. Baby Dear has also learned how to crawl up the stairs, and eats oatmeal with us in the morning too. Though I think Baby Dear now has a rival. For her birthday, Magdalena received a baby doll, and Lucia has taken to sharing parenting duties of this new baby with Magdalena. I had to tell Lucia that this is Magdalena's baby, and therefore she is Lucia's neice. Lucia now puts her neice (whom she loves very much) to bed with Baby Dear, and both of them share a special place in her bed when she goes to sleep at night. So far, Magdalena has not gotten upset over her forced relinquishment of her new baby doll.

Speaking of sleep, a our evening routine is a fun time at our house. When Alex gets home, I sing (to the tune of the William Tell Overture) "Daaaaaaa-dy's home, Daddy's home, Daddy's home, Daddy's home, home home!" and both girls perk up and make a beeline for the door. We all share a "Family Hug" where Alex picks up Lucia, and I hold Magdalena, and we take turn giving each other kisses. Then we have dinner together, which usually ends in Lucia running around the table and Magdalena eating fruit to buoy up her stomach as she can't always eat our ayi's delicious Chinese cooking in great quantities (sometimes too spicy, and she doesn't really like meat or rice). Next, the girls head upstairs with Dada to get a bath, and I clean up (though I do think it is valuable for our kids to watch Alex clean as well as me, right now it is more important that he spends quality time with them, as I am staying home all day). Magdalena and Lucia splash around for a while, then I take Magdalena out for lotion, pjs, books, nursing and bed, and Alex patiently (most of the time) waits for Lucia to stop running around naked long enough to put lotion and pjs on her. Then the two of them tromp downstairs to read books or watch 20 minutes of a movie together on the couch. After teeth brushing and prayers (which I lie in Lucia's bed to say with her, while Alex sits on the futon), Lucia insists that Daddy lies down with her for "two minutes!" before she drifts off to sleep.

Lucia is also at the age where she wants to do everything like Mama. She was therefore quite thrilled with our matching haircuts, and also loves it when we wear similar colored clothes, both wear slip-on shoes, eat with chopsticks (though her version is more like using knitting needles), or do anything together. I love this phase, for the most part, though it is somewhat irritating when Lucia needs to wear her warm clothes to school and I am trying to dress in my running clothes, as I run the jogging stroller home almost every day after drop-off.

Lucia's memory and sense of direction are terrific. When we go to a hotel, she always remembers how to get to the room from the elevator (I often forget this!). And she reminds us of all the times she's gotten "on the big airplane" to go to places like Shanghai, Beijing, and back to America to see Ama and Apa. She remembers every friend who has ever ridden in our car with her, and even seems to remember her old friends at Heaven Sent Childcare. She can't wait to see Jude and loves to look at our Family Friday calendar, naming all her friends in Portland - especially Ben and Annie!

In general, Lucia is a very happy and energetic kid. She loves to run (always wants to hold hands and run), has started skipping, playing Red Light/Green Light, swinging and playing at any park, playing with ANY kids, and petting dogs and cats.  She is a great eater; every day at school she has leftovers from the night before and some broccoli, as well as an apple (she eats it whole now) for lunch. Her vocabulary and articulation are quite plain for a kid her age, and she will even repeat a lot of Chinese - though almost never when specifically asked (unless she is threatened to not get something if she won't say xie xie - thank you).  She is now 1 meter tall - 39.5 inches - and weighed about 36 lbs at her 3 year doctor's visit. She could blow out her birthday candles this year, AND has learned how to hold up three fingers, though it still takes a few tries to get them up successfully. :-)

I'm sure that I am missing a ton of funny things that Lucia does, but these are some good ones for now!


Almost to 3 fingers!

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