39 Months
At 39 months, Yaya is now becoming aware of the seasons changing - the need to wear jackets to go outside, the leaves on the trees turning color and falling off the branches, etc. It's amazing since last year she really didn't pay that much attention to these changes. Here she is playing in the leaves. She liked to throw it around and jump around in it, but eventually she did help Papa bag these autumn leaves.
Food status: no change. Potty training score: Yaya 5500, Mama & Papa 400. We had to move her potty chair onto the stage (gradually closer to the bathroom) as she was beginning to just hang out sans underwear on the froggy potty chair in front of the tv for hours on end. With it on the stage now, she only sits on it when she has to go, and for pooping when sometimes she needs some extra time (don't we all!) she reads books, draws with crayons, plays with some building blocks or plays on her little "alphabet computer". She is no longer just sitting on the thing, watching tv for too long. Hopefully couch potato crisis somewhat averted! She seems to have gone over the phase of only wearing white undies - now she will wear her other undies and no longer seems to care as long as they fit. Strange, yes? She does still wear a diaper to nap but more often than not she remains dry after the nap and just goes potty first thing after waking up.
Nap status: spotty. She has been skipping some naps, but she seems to be gaining a semblance of self control in that she's not a completely crazed maniac in the evenings when she doesn't nap. She is obviously extra tired and not as friendly, but she's not downright mean and awful as she used to be. Perhaps she will be giving up her nap one of these days. She seems to balance out a few days of no nap with a few days of nap. A nice thing is that on the days without a nap, she does go down very easily at bedtime. There are days when I barely even get to sing the "Dr Doofenschmirtz" song (which has been her lullaby of choice for a couple of years now) once through before she's fallen asleep. I like those days 
.
Papa and Yaya also had a milestone together: one night without Mama. I had to go to a conference in Chicago, and while the original plan had been to travel together as a family, Yaya was sneezing and coughing, so we decided not to subject her to being on the road while sick. I drove to Chicago myself, leaving early in the morning on Tuesday October 4, staying overnight at Jen's place in Chicago, and driving home the evening of Wednesday October 5. Although I spoke on the phone to both Papa and Yaya at bedtime, there was reported to be some resistance, a little crying, and a late night (11:30 PM?) before Yaya finally fell asleep. This is the first night that she was put to bed without me, poor baby. But all in all it went pretty well.
Yaya seems to be embracing the role of big sister now, where she has actually reassigned some roles in the plays she directs (e.g., she is now Peppa Pig, and Adik is George the little brother, whereas she used to adamantly be George the little brother). What's funny though is she has gender-specific ideas about who is whose child. So for instance, Yaya is Mama's daughter but not Papa's daughter, and Adik is Papa's son but not Mama's son. Girl to girl, boy to boy correlation. And she vehemently denies the possibility that she could be both Mama and Papa's daughter, and Adik can be both Mama and Papa's son. It's quite amusing. But again, very hopeful that she is going to take this huge change in her life with some amount of grace. 
She is very interested in letters and numbers. She attempts to draw letters and numbers on paper using her crayons, and they are getting fairly recognizable! She can write and spell a few simple words (CAT, DOG, ZEBRA, YAYA, etc.). She also wants to type on the computer so has been typing out these words on a blank Word document. It's never too young to get a kid started on the QWERTY keyboard I suppose.
Until next month, adios! Check back for more adventures of soon-to-be Big Sister Yaya! Happy birthday baby girl! We love you!
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