3 Years

Happy third birthday to Gus and Gibson! I've been looking forward to this day when they could play with all the "ages 3+" toys without choking on anything. Ha ha! Actually, they have stopped putting everything in their mouths, so I suppose that's a good sign.

Language
I am not really concerned about them having a speech delay anymore, because they chatter all the time. One issue is that they still use "me" as a subject pronoun, instead of "I." So far I'm just continuing to model correct grammar without making a point to correct them. I figure they'll catch on eventually. In the meantime, it makes for some adorable expressions.

Gibson, tearfully at the park when trying to describe a snack, "No me know me talking about!"
(Turns out, he wanted to eat bunny grahams)

They use the word "love" frequently
Me: Please don't bite your brother
Gibson: But me loooove bite Gus!

I hand Gus a sandwich on an orange plate.
Gus (frowning): Ahh! No me love orange things!

They haven't started asking "why?" yet, but they do ask a lot of questions. Lately, they want to know what everything eats, including animals, plants, the cast of Octonauts, and non-living things like rainbows. Their syntax is, "Mommy, giraffe-es eat?" (The plural of giraffe is 3 syllables)

Pronunciation of some sounds is hit or miss. My current favorite word is "zizzors" (aka scissors)

Physical Milestones
We gave them balance bikes today for their birthdays. They rode around at the park for quite awhile without any major incidents. "Rode" isn't the right word - it was just walking with the bike underneath them. But it actually went better than I thought, so I'm sure they'll be zooming around before long.

They can run fairly fast without tripping.

Potty training hasn't been successful yet. We have a September deadline or else they can't start preschool, so yeah, better get on that soon...

Fine Motor Skills
They make tiny little blobs out of Playdoh.

They're doing better holding crayons/markers, except they don't like to be constrained to decorating only paper.

They are starting to grasp the concept of water color painting.

Personalities
We continue to see unique personalities develop.

Gibson likes to be silly. He is usually resilient and adaptable.

Gus is the rule enforcer. He's got a tender heart.

They are both playful, enjoy music, and are a bit wary of new people.

Overall
They have become little kids. They like babies, but they definitely don't consider themselves babies. They are more interested in playing with other kids at parks and etc. With them starting preschool in the fall and our family hopefully moving to a new home, I expect we'll see all sorts of changes in the year ahead!