mary: 3.6 years old.

mary, my girl.  this may be boring for some, but i want to remember the little funny things about my kids... so here goes an extensive update on mary and all of her quirky ways.  

mary has quite the personality.  she loves being in charge and being a big sister to her little brother.  she loves to boss him around (and he loves it too), she makes up fun games, leads him in screaming at the dinner table (which leads to two children getting disciplined), leads him in prayer (he repeats after her), and frequently tells me that he's still a baby so he doesn't know how to obey yet.  he's two.  he knows how to obey.  anyways, she bosses and defends lukey.  she gets frustrated with him, but also has the sweetest moments with him.  she helps him with his shoes, encourages him to eat his food, cheers for him when he says a new word.  she has such a joy to see him progress.  it's sweet.  

mary loves to play soccer and still likes to exercise, though she's not as obsessed as she used to be.  

she loves to 'study' like mama and dada.  she's also getting really into coloring (inside the lines... she gets really proud of herself).  :)  she loves to do crafts, write squiggly lines which she calls letters and trace letters.

mary still loves her baby and sometimes has a new "special thing" every few days.  a lizard, my tripod (which she carried around like a baby), a bunny, a frog... it doesn't have to be in the shape of a human for her to mother it.  she loves mothering all things.  

she loves books.  she has since she was tiny.  every night she goes to bed with a ton of books in her bed and reads for up to an hour sometimes.  she will sit and listen to us read forever and correct us if we get a word wrong.  her current favorites are anything clifford, a mickey mouse flap book, you are special (max lucado) and her bible.  

she loves to play "school."  whoever is over (usually luke and leslie play along best, i think) has to sit down, she plays the guitar and sings 'worship' songs (usually about whatever is in her mind at the time... she makes them up and they can be about anything).  then they move onto story time.  she pretends to read in indonesian and it's all jiberrish with a lot of indonesian sounds or words included.  clearly, she's confused at school.  :)   

she goes to school M-F from 9-11am.  she had a hard time getting dropped off for the first month or so, but loves it now!  she has learned a lot from school (letters, songs, stories) and loves all of the activities.    i'm not convinced that she always knows what is going on since it's mostly in indonesian, but her indonesian language is coming along slowly but surely (i hope).  she doesn't sit very well in circle time which is something that we're currently working on with her teacher.  it may because because she doesn't have a clue what is happening or just because she's her own bird and wants to play independently.  either way, i'd like her to sit.  :)

mary is still napping for 1.5 hours most days of the week.  when ibu sri is watching her she usually doesn't nap but still does rest time.  she is a night owl and could stay up until 10:30pm and be happy as ever.  sometimes she does stay up that late in her bed, singing and reading.

mary is a sweet little girl.  she is caring towards her brother and enjoys getting to know people.  she amazes me how she remembers people's names and will randomly talk about someone that she met once a few months ago.  she often says, i love you mommy, you're a kind mommy.  or you're a good mommy.  she has this sappy tone of voice and rubs my hair.  it's so sweet and it also cracks me up because it's so sappy.  we are so thankful for the joy that mary brings to our lives!

and, this was my attempt at getting some photos of her.  it was a little too late in the day to get good ones and i went to a place that i thought was going to be a grassy hill... i hadn't seen the top.  so, i climbed up with her on my shoulders and we land in this dirt construction area.  not what i was imagining.  i know for next time.  it didn't really matter because clearly she wasn't in the mood.  she wouldn't stop making "funny faces", which means she sticks her fingers on her face.  

i just decided to join the fun and go with it.  we'll have to try to get some cute photos of her another time... :)