Thirty-Six Months of Preschooler Frances

And now, for the last monthly update of Frances Elliott Upton!  Almost three years of these things seems like plenty, no?  My plan (no derisive laughter, please) is to keep up with the monthly photos, but maybe not the monthly blow-by-blow.

So here she is, in all her glory at thirty-six months old! (And, yes, I forgot to take photos until moments before bedtime.)

Cheese ball.

Thirty-Six Months Fun Facts

• Firsts: Frances went to her first Lightning Show at the Museum of Science!  I remember going to these shows as a little kid when my sisters and I visited our grandparents.  The shows are very loud and I did not think Frances would enjoy it at all, but she was determined to go once she heard that there would be a "show."  She loved it.  I covered her ears and she covered her baby doll's ears.  Worked perfectly.
• Frances-isms: Frances switches "air port" and "tennis court" so sometimes she'll say "I want to go to the airport and play ball."  She's also latched on to "sounds like a plan" so she'll say things like "We go to store for pepperoni and then library.  Sounds like a plan?"
• Food: Pepperoni, pepperoni, pepperoni.  I wish I hadn't just heard that it gives you cancer.  Sometimes she'll eat rice.  When I try to introduce new foods, she cries and pushes the new food off her plate.  Excellent.
• New skill: Frances is very keen to write letters and numbers all of a sudden.  Her favorites are F, E and 4, but she's thrown in a 5, a v, and an r.  Complete surprise to us.  Her teacher wants her to be focusing more on big gestures than fine motor skills, but it's hard not to be excited.
• Favorite reads:  She's really been enjoying the No, David! series by David Shannon, but Thomas and George hold steady.  The other day, I let her pick a little item for herself from our local toy store for her birthday.  I thought she might choose a ballerina sticker book, but Happy Birthday, Thomas! won hands down.  All on her own, she got interested in The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, which was exciting but the book is really beyond her right now.
• Worst moment of the month:  It was more than a moment, really.  There was one night Frances could not fall asleep until 11 p.m.  And this wasn't happy not-falling-asleep-because-I'm-not-tired.  This was weeping, tantrumming not-falling-asleep-because-I'm-out-of-my-gourd.  She started the melt down about 8. Mark drove to a job site about 45 minutes from us, did his work and drove home.  She was still in melt down mode when he got home at about 10:45.  There was no joy in Whoville, let me tell you.
• Second worst moment of the month: Again, more than a moment.  Frances, dear, woke up at 3 a.m. and wasn't interested in going back to sleep until 4:30 a.m.  Unlike the previous episode, she was perfectly happy to be awake from 3 a.m. until 4:30 a.m.  I was not.  She ended up sleeping with us, first with her head next to ours, then with her head on my belly and her feet on Mark's hips and then with her head down by our feet.  Even weeks later, I don't know what to say.
• Best moment of the month:  This was right around one of the terrible nights when nerves were frayed pretty thin.  After dinner, I turned on Pandora's Family Folk radio station.  The first song to pop up: "Obvious Child" by Paul Simon.  Hallelujah!  All three of us danced around the kitchen and had a grand old time. Just what we needed. Thank you, thank you Paul Simon and the folks down at Pandora's Family Folk radio station!

Still with me?  I'm impressed!

And so ends three years with Frances Elliott.