Peanut Kirkpatrick: Peyton turns 3 years old!

Our baby girl is three years old! We are so thrilled to be her parents. Peyton is such an absolute joy in our lives, and adds so much to our family. She is incredibly intelligent, caring, assertive, outgoing, independent, and adventurous. Its has been such a joy to watch her grow over these past 3 years, and we look forward to many more adventures with her. We are so proud of who she has become!

Learning:
We've been incredibly lucky to find a thriving preschool for Peyton literally at the house behind ours. Roxanne is her preschool teacher and Peyton has flourished in her care. She learns singing, science, art, letters, Spanish, numers and small group activities with her classmates James, Henry, Jack, Wren, Olive, and Hazel. After having a bad experience with another preschool, we feel so blessed for Peyton to have such a great experience with Roxanne. Here are some skills that she has obtained over the past year:

Able to recognize all letters in the alphabet
Can count to 20
Can recognize numbers up to 10
Knows all colors
learnes about the human body (knows stomach, ribs, esophagus, skeleton, skull, muscles, and all basic body parts)
Sings (along with her teacher) a good morning song and The Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish
Writes with her left hand and can hold a pencil/pen/crayon the correct way

Sleeping:
Peyton continues to be a great sleeper. Her bedtime is still 8:00 and she continues to take a nap everyday for about 2-3 hours. Something new that we recently implemented was an alarm clock for her, which has helped mommy and daddy not have to wake up at 5:30am! The clock turns green when she is allowed to get out of bed, and can be set to anytime you wish. Peyton has really taken to this, and is even motivated by a treat at the end of the week if she pays attention to it. I was really worried about how Peyton would adapt to Kemper being in the very next room to her and waking up in the middle of the night as newborn babies do. However, she has done tremendously! Not once has Kemper woken up Peyton in the middle of the night, so its gone better than anticipated.

Eating:
Though Peyton does pretty well with getting balanced meals that include proteins, vegetables, and fruit, I would say that she is in full toddler food preference. What I mean by this is that its always a sure bet that we could get her to eat things like mac and cheese, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, etc. That being said she still is ok with me mixing in pureed spinach into a lot of foods, she still eats tofu, and enjoys fresh fruit smoothies made by her mama. I have to remind myself to continue to try new foods with her, even if she says no, something I often forget to do. Squeezy fruit packets remain a favorite of hers and are great when you're on the go.

Clothes:
Peyton is currently wearing a 4T in most clothes. She hasn't yet gone through the stage where she is insistant on choosing what she wears, but I'm sure that stage is close. She does often have a prefernce on her shoes and her favorites include her "Ruby Slippers (aka pink sparkly TOMS)", and her "running shoes (aka Nike tennis shoes)."

Activities:
This year, Peyton took a Gymnastics class at Cascade Elite Gymnastics. She enjoyed it very much and her favorite things were the foam pit, summersaults, and balance beam. She never really took to the trampoline, however. We also recently signed her up for ballet, which she will start this July. I would love for her to try soccer and swimming this next year.

Doctors Visits:
This year, Peyton had both Croup and Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease (along with Daddy!). She recovered well with both conditions. Additionally, her 2 year stats were a weight of 37lbs (92nd percentile), height of 39 inches (92nd percentile).

Peyton's Favorite Things