This past week our Genevieve turned three years old!
Genevieve has already seemed like a three-year-old for a few months now. About the point that we felt like we finally turned a corner with Olivia, we started seeing all of the same behaviors and moods from Genevieve. She won’t settle into anything for more than a minute or two at a time, especially at home. She goes from 0-60 when she’s upset, and it can be hard to bring her back down from those moods. Genevieve also picks a lot more fights with Tommy and Olivia or just tries to keep them from settling into their own activities. It doesn’t help that Genevieve stopped napping and is almost always exhausted by mid-afternoon.
Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of development aspects of age three that are so much fun. Kids make numerous verbal and gross motor gains and get so much more independent in their play and their practical skills, such as getting dressed. But it’s also a very challenging age, and we’re already feeling those struggles deeply with Genevieve.
With that being said, Genevieve has always had a sweet personality and a great sense of humor. I can bring her to restaurants or along for appointments, and she does such a good job waiting, especially when it’s just us or with Annie.
Right now, Genevieve’s favorite game is hide and seek. She initiates hide and seek all the time with us and her grandparents, more than Tommy or Olivia. For newly three years old, Genevieve is a great hider. Genevieve also loves singing. She and Olivia have a few favorite Toniebox characters and play them almost every day. Genevieve’s other favorite toys are baby dolls. She spends a lot of time carrying them around the house and making up pretend games with them.
Olivia and Genevieve have gone through huge phases with watching Blippi and Cocomelon the past year. Lately, Olivia would rather watch Peppa Pig over everything else, but Genevieve still likes Cocomelon. Sometimes, we’ll get Olivia and Genevieve to settle into Bluey or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But Genevieve still doesn’t have much interest in sitting through longer shows.
I started Olivia in swimming lessons when a new toddler transition class opened up that fit our schedule. Genevieve joined Olivia in that class when she turned three. At some point, the girls were able to switch to the same afternoon as Tommy, which has been amazing.
Olivia and Genevieve have both done so well with swimming. Right from the beginning, they’ve been comfortable in the water and willing to try everything that the instructors have asked them to do. In September, Olivia moved up to Beginner 1. The three older kids still have lessons on the same afternoon, but Genevieve and Olivia are in different classes now. They’ve handled the transition so smoothly.
Olivia was dying to start soccer when Tommy went back to it this fall. I wouldn’t have started Genevieve on her own, but I knew that she would feel left out if Olivia played, and she didn’t. So Olivia and Genevieve played at the lowest level, where they show up and practice once a week but don’t have games. As Olivia is one of the very oldest kids in the group, you can imagine how it goes. But the girls have had so much fun being included and love kicking their balls around during Tommy’s games.
With just a couple of months off for Annie’s birth and having Tommy at home this summer, the girls have been in their own music class since Olivia was about 18 months old. It has been so neat watching Genevieve and now Annie slowly start participating. A little over five years since Tommy first started, I still can’t say enough good things about Kindermusik and look forward to a number of years ahead with my girls.
When Tommy started first grade this fall, Genevieve joined Olivia for a couple of days per week of preschool. In typical fashion, she immediately got sick and missed her second day of school. Then there was a bit of transition period for her, getting used to the routine and having me leave every day. Now she does really well with it.
I talked in a few of my monthly updates about how Genevieve was born with a lazy eye. We started the process of getting Genevieve into the children’s eye clinic in Milwaukee right after she turned one. It took a full year and a half to get her eye surgery completed. Prior to and following the surgery, we were patching her strong eye for a few hours per day.
Genevieve’s surgery and recovery went smoothly. She didn’t like the antibiotic/steroid drops we had to give her during the recovery. But she did great with everything else. Genevieve had to take a break from swimming for a few weeks after the surgery. But she was able to return to all of her other normal activities a week later.
Genevieve’s eye surgery helped her eye tracking so much, which has made a huge difference in her gross motor development. A few months after her surgery, her weak eye was still crossing enough that they prescribed glasses. Just a few weeks after Genevieve got her glasses and was finally getting into a comfortable routine of wearing them for a couple of hours at a stretch, she popped one of the lenses out and lost it somewhere in the house. There are no words to convey how angry and devastated I was by this setback.
It was quicker and much less expensive to replace the lost lens than it was to get all new glasses. Unfortunately, keeping glasses on a two- or three-year-old is extremely challenging. Genevieve takes her glasses off at random all the time, which is terrifying when we’re out of the house. She does well wearing her glasses at school. Otherwise, I keep having her wear them for stretches of three or four hours at a time at home.
We started the process of getting Genevieve into birth-3 for physical therapy (PT) when she was about 18 months old. She had her first PT session the week that Tommy started kindergarten and went straight through with a session every other week until she turned three. I can’t say enough good things about birth-3 and Genevieve’s PT. Genevieve benefitted so much from having regular PT while waiting for her eye surgery and then while continuing to strengthen her eye and build confidence in her gross motor skills.
Genevieve is a good eater. Like almost all preschool-age kids, she’s fairly picky. But most days, Genevieve will eat well for at least two out of the three meals, which is always a win. She also continues to try new foods without too much drama. Genevieve’s favorite foods include bananas, grapes, cheese, yogurt, graham crackers, breakfast sausage, salmon, pizza, and calzones.
Through the fall while the weather was nice, Genevieve was wearing a mix of 18-24 month and 2T shorts and pants and all 2T shirts, pajamas, and dresses. As the weather has cooled down, I’ve been pulling the final 18-24 month items and moving Olivia into all 4T items so Genevieve can move into the 3T items.
About a month before Genevieve turned three, she started initiating going to the potty on her own. We’ve gotten to the point where Genevieve does really well in underwear at home during the day. I still haven’t had her wear underwear out of the house or at night. We made a lot of progress over the Thanksgiving break. But then all three older kids got sick right after the break. I’m hoping to work on it more over Christmas and get Genevieve to the point where she can wear underwear out of the house during the day by the time we’re going back to regular activities after New Year’s.
Genevieve slept in a pack ‘n play during our Wisconsin Dells vacation this summer. It’s much lower to the ground than a traditional crib, and she climbed out of it easily during the entire trip. Then when we got home, she was immediately climbing out of her crib. So we transitioned Olivia and Genevieve to a bunk bed. It’s a kids’ bed with a lower bunk that’s right on the ground. The girls did so well with the transition and have never looked back.
I had Olivia and Genevieve give up their pacifiers at the same time when they were three and a half and two and a half. We did the Build-a-Bear thing, where they each picked a stuffed animal and had a final pacifier sewn into it. Olivia was much more attached to pacifiers than Genevieve and missed them more for a few weeks. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible transition, but it was the beginning of the end of naptime at home.
Genevieve stopped napping at home a few months before she turned three. We can still get her to go down occasionally when she’s exhausted and in a really choice mood or when she’s sick. Genevieve doesn’t nap regularly at school either and only falls asleep in the car every once in a while. Olivia and Genevieve go to bed between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. and sleep until 6:00 or 7:00 a.m.
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all of the kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
