3 years old!

Jackson is 3 years old (as of last week)!  Measurements have him at 33 lbs (68 percentile), 38 inches (57 percentile).  Here’s a look at how he’s grown (time for me to cry)!

Current Developmental Milestones:

• Talking ALL the time and saying new things every day.  Easily carries on conversation and engages in dialogue.  He will repeat almost everything he hears!  He also asks a lot of questions lately – he wants to know what everything is, why things work certain ways, and just generally anything about everything!
• Concepts – Alphabet: recognizes most letters visually, can write some letters with guidance (there’s an app for that!), and learning phonetic sounds (“t” is for truck).  He also has counting, colors, and shapes down pretty solid. 
• Drawing / fine motor – he can draw lines, circles, and is using safety scissors for cutting and glue sticks regularly
• Pretend play – LOTS of pretend play in this age. so cute!
• Favorite toy right now – tools/workshop, iPod Touch, construction/trucks, and Toy Story (he just got the Woody doll with his birthday money!)
• Favorite books – nothing really sticking out, since we are on a routine of reading different books nightly now, but the last one he wanted read repeatedly was a Clifford Valentine book
• Favorite TV show – Handy Manny or Chuggington
• Favorite movie – Cars or Toy Story series
• Cute behaviors – wanting to “please”  (if I get visibly frustrated or disappointed he can tell, and will ask me if I’m “happy” and then will keep telling me that he wants me to “be happy.”);  he can remember more things in the past, but everything always happened “last night.” 
• Not-so-cute behaviors – the tantrums are much more under control, and less often/intense.  My biggest issues these days are potty accidents….
• Potty  Training – speaking of which…. we have started potty training, and had some great progress at first, but it’s a struggle for the last couple of weeks, and we are not doing so great lately :(
• But to end on a positive note – he does really well with his “daily goals” chart where he has to clean up his plate/cup after meals, clean up toys before bed, brush/floss teeth, and try to use the potty