Uno, dos, tres...

I didn't feel that it was fair to brag about Cara without shinning the light on Caitlin as well. She is 3 1/2 years old now, which she asks me just about every day--"What number am I Momma?" Just about every day, am I amazed at the things that she says or does, she is such of a sponge and a puppet. I have to be really careful what I say or I'll find Ms. Caitie repeating it. Like one time, I called Winston, the family Golden Retriever, a blonde idiot and wouldn't you know, I heard Caitlin call a dog at the park that same thing! Whoops, I need a sensor on my mouth! The cutest things come out of her mouth too...the other day, I was nursing Cara, who has discovered that she can bite Momma, and she decided to attempt to take a nibble. I yelped out in pain and unlatched Cara. Caitlin, seeing my distress said, "Breathe Momma!" Do I have a future labor coach or therapist in the making? I was laughing so hard that I forgot about the pain that I was in. I swear that I don't know where she learns these things from.
Also, Caitlin has been starting to say things in Spanish lately, thanks to Dora the Explorer and Diego (and yes, the Dora Kitchen). She can count to ten and does so without thinking a lot when she's counting up stuff while playing; and uses many phrases in the course of a conversation. I even heard her talking to her Little People doll house characters the other day, in partial Spanish. It's pretty bad when your 3 year old knows more Spanish than you do. I had to find a website to translate some English words into Spanish when Caitlin would ask what such and such was in Spanish. Thankfully, I came across this site that not only finds the correct word for you, but sounds it out (http://www.spanishdict.com/). I need that since phonics are not one of my strong points. I'm thinking that Muzzie might be a good birthday gift idea for her. Who knows, maybe I'll pick it up too...goodness knows it will come in handy out here where we have a large hispanic population.
We are working on letter recognition and have found it to be a lot of fun to make letters out of PlayDough and identifying each of alphabet letters that we have on the fridge. I think, I'm going to take Lauren's idea and make flash cards for her--that will be a test of my artistic ability because I want to draw a picture on one side that starts with that letter and the letter on the other side. I'll probably chicken out and use clip art! She did get two alphabet games for her Leap Pad for Christmas, so she has learned a lot because of those too.
I have noticed a great change in Caitie's drawings as of late. The little artist in her is blossoming. She is drawing faces that are atomically correct and other pictures with things in them that I can usually identify. When she colors, she is also staying within the lines most of the time and coloring things a more realistic color...green for grass, yellow for a sun, etc. I love to watch her be so artistic and creative.
Her pretend play has also become more grown up too. She roll-plays with her doll house characters, plays "What's cooking?" with her Dora Kitchen and loves to make houses and forts for her stuffed animals. She has also recently taken to puzzles, effortlessly putting together 25 piece puzzles. Somewhere, there is a little brain working away.
I just delight in seeing these "big girl" changes in her though I find it hard to believe that she will be FOUR this summer!