Your 3-year-old now
"Look at me! Mom, look at me!" your preschooler calls as she zooms down the slide — headfirst. Her growing bravery on the playground may make you wince sometimes, not that she notices. She loves showing off new skills. As well she should — she's enormously proud of them.
At 3, children walk on tiptoe, try to stand on one foot (and might even succeed for a few seconds), gallop and try to skip, and pedal a tricycle. To keep these gross motor skills developing, shoot for at least an hour of physical activity a day. Unstructured play offers plenty of practice running and jumping. More organized games like tag, hopscotch, and simple ball games build endurance and coordination. To work on balance, encourage your child to walk next to you along a curb or follow a line on the driveway. Obstacle courses set up inside or outside help children grasp spatial relations: "Climb over the chair. Now skip around the cone." Better yet, show her yourself — you can get some exercise, too.
Your life now
If your child has a beloved blankie or stuffed animal, you've probably had to retrieve it from afar more than once. Maybe it was left at Grandma's and you had to fetch it in the middle of the night. Or you had to ask a hotel to FedEx it across the country after leaving it behind. You might be wondering when the jig will be up.
Whatever you do — don't do anything! Children let go of security objects at different ages. Some may be ready when they start preschool; some like to carry theirs to preschool in their backpack and leave it in their cubby by day. Others continue to sleep with a special pal well into elementary school and beyond. Most children wean themselves eventually.
To avoid losing a lovey, if you haven't already, establish some rules about where the blankie or bear can and can't go. For 3-year-olds who once had unrestricted limits on where to bring a lovey, make new "big kid" rules. If it never leaves the house, it's a lot easier to find. Obviously, doctor's appointments and vacations are reasonable exceptions. (By 3, a child's chosen object is usually so well-loved and tattered it may be too late to try the ol' buy-a-replacement ruse.)