15 months and 3 years old

Tomorrow  the girls have their doctor checkups---15 months for Brielle and 3 years for Raya. They always ask "do you have any concerns" at those  appointments so today I just did some checking to compare what they  can do to the various developmental charts online,  etc. Thankfully I can easily say that "no, I don't  have any concerns!"

Let's start with Raya :-)

I'm estimating Raya to be around 37 pounds and 38 inches tall. I talked  to my mom and she said at my own 3 year appointment way back  when that I was also 38 inches tall, and 39 lbs. So Raya is (I believe) just about exactly what I was at this age---strange huh?! I think that  for percentiles  she'll be above average weight and average to high average height. It's  funny to me because I always think of Raya as having kind of short  legs, but I'm pretty tall (5'9) and Raya appears to be following in my footsteps for size, so we'll see! She definitely reminds me of myself for build---definitely not petite, but average/healthy weight. We're solid haha.

As far as developmental, I think  Raya is right on track, or excelling, in most areas. She can brush her own teeth, wash her own hands, put on her own shoes, she's  potty trained, speaks in sentences, etc. etc. At this age they say that kids  should  be able to count to 3 and identify some colors.....well Raya  can count to 15, and all the way  to 20 depending on her mood....she knows  all of her colors and can count with 1-to-1 correspondance up to 10. She can climb ladders, pretend play, knows  when and how to ask for help, can read people's moods, etc. I  would say the only area she  might be a little 'Behind" on his fine motor (they say at age 3 they should be able to draw simple shapes like a circle, copy simple figures like a cross, etc and  Raya  is just now starting to experiement with that stuff.  But  honestly, we havent' really worked on that at all until very recently, so she's just getting used  to holding a pencil and things like that.  She happily tries to trace lines and draw circles, but they are still a little rough looking. However I think it's still  well within normal for her age....she's only  3 afterall!

And now for Brielle :-)

I'm estimating Brielle to be around 22lbs and 29 inches long. At her 12 month appointment she was below average for  size (I  think around 18th-20th%ile) but she definitely seems to be  filling out recently (yay!) I'm predicting she'll be maybe in the 40th%ile range---still  very much my "petite" girl compared to Raya  at the same age. Funny  how they can be so different!

As far as developmental, I  really think brielle is right on track. At this age they say the "average" 15 month old has 3-6 words that parents can understand. Well Brielle says Dada, Mama, uh-oh, what's that, and hi regularly, so that's  great! She also is  doing quite a bit  of repeating too. At this age she should  be able to point to 1 or more body parts and she can do many more than that (ears, tongue, head, belly button, toes). She understands simple  commands (such as "go get monkey  paci"). She can crawl up stairs, climb onto furniture, etc. Her  gross motor is advanced I would say!! All in all I think she's doing great :-) The only area I've come across that she can't  do is a lot of charts say they can "walk backwards" at 15 months haha. Well, I guess that's not a skill I've ever thought to work  on :-P

In other news for Brielle, we have officially stopped the morning nap! It's been about 1 week now that she has  gone without, and she does fine. She starts to get fussy after lunch, but by then it's time for the afternoon nap with Raya.

And now for some pictures! First off, Brielle is quite the smarty pants I think. She's often overlooked  because Raya can do so much more, being older....but  Brielle is really catching on to things. For instance, Brielle has been willingly doing photoshoots with Raya the last  couple days haha.  She runs to the wall where I normally take their pictures and she stands there and grunts at my camera lol.

And go figure, she chooses to pose right after  playing outside and in the sandbox
so she's covered in dirt and snot LOL

So then Raya  sat down and said "I get treat? I take pictures and  smile?"  haha. Always looking for the payoff LOL. (By the way, no, she didn't get  any candy!)

And then Raya holds  out her  shirt and says  "Take pictures  of my pretty shirt Mommy"  .....perfect....let's be super  cooperative when you are wearing the least interesting outfit  in your closet haha.

And then things really got  funny.  Brielle stands  up and starts pushing at Raya's  legs....I figured  out that she was wanting to sit on Raya's lap!! Hahaha....she knows how the photoshoots go :-P

Raya started sticking  out her  tongue....

And  soon our little  copycat was doing the same thing! :-)

And finally, some pictures from today. We were doing some educational  time in the playroom with counting bears.  It was the first time I've let Brielle play with them because I worry she'll eat them. She had fun! Raya got  all  kinds  of  pots and pans and cups out and they were "cooking" the bears haha. Whatever floats their boat!

She was really concentrating!

Another "ah-ha" moment...I  told her "big smile!!" just like I say to Raya, and she immediately  did this! hehe

She was saying "bear" too---but  she gets so excited that  many of her  words are hard to distinguish from squeals.
Today  I finally noticed she was saying "BEEEE ars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when at first  I thought she was just squealing :-)

Such a goofy girl!

We've just  started doing  some 3-5 age preschool books and she loves them!! Working on prewriting skills right now--drawing lines, circles, etc....and also letter recognition and sounds. She can point out (recognize) almost every letter in the alphabet!!! She can name about 1/2 of them and do sounds for about 1/3 I think.

Happy Monday!!!!!  And don't forget  about my GIVEAWAY going on now on my Etsy shop's facebook page   ....we've got quite  a battle going on for first place between 2 entries :-) But I will  also be chosing another winner completely randomly, so there  is still time to post a photo on my fb to enter and possibly win a free shirt!! Contest ends tomorrow night and a winner will  be chosen Wednesday morning. Good luck!