Things she does at 3 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 3 days old

Astrid counts to 20 on her own. When prompted she'll count to her mid 30's.
One day at the YMCA a teenager heard Astrid counting and commented, "She skipped 16."
I responded, "Yeah, she's 3."
To which she said, "Oh. Well than that's really good."

She sings the "do re me" song from The Sound of Music (jumbling up the lyrics like a 3 year old - but I'm fascinated that she memorized the song so quickly):
Doe a deer a female deer
Ray a drop of golden sun
Me a name I call myself
Fa a long long way to run
Sew a needle pulling thread
La a note to follow sew
Tea a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Doe Doe Doe Doe

She loves to sing.

There's a song that one of her teachers at school taught her that goes,
"We say goodbye to our friends. Sayonara!"
She just butchers Sayonara to death - but it's so cute.

She demands watching an episode of Cailou (U. describes it as a dumb cartoon with a kid in it which is really lame.) or Dragon Tales before going to bed at night.

She knows the days of the week - and can say them on her own (with just a couple mistakes)
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
This comes straight from preschool. However, I reinforce it when I tell her that she has gymnastics class and music class on Tuesdays and dance class on Saturday. And everyday I remind her what day it is.

Everything is "yesterday" - but she's getting better with understanding the concept of time.
"My birthday yesterday right?"
"I go to Gymnastics class yesterday."
"We go to nesteraunt (restaurant) yesterday."

Yesterday she asked me, "Mama we go yesterday or last night?"

She's screaming in her room when U. puts her to bed tonight and I hear her yell, "No! Mama puts me to bed!" (Yes, still very much super attached to me. She wants me to brush her teeth, change her clothes, etc. It can only be done by me and not by papa.)

She snapped "No!" at me and afterwards we had a discussion about how she can't say that to mama. (It wasn't just a "no" I don't want to do that which I wouldn't have minded. But this was a bad behavior shouting of "No!" that was unacceptable.) I made her apologize to me and then gave her a hug. Another time she was right about to shout "No!" when she stopped after the "n" sound catching herself and instead said, "I no say NO to mama. I don't do that." and gave me a big smile.

I have no problems with her saying "No" to peer pressure though. Friends of ours have a 6 year old and he was trying to get her to do stuff and she would just say "no" and walk away. I love that she's independent like that at 3.

If you would have told me I'd be talking like this with a straight face one day, I would have thought you were nuts:
Today's conversation in the restroom at Whole Foods:
Astrid: Mama go pee pee too?
Me: Yes, mama has to go pee pee too.
Astrid: No poo poo? Just pee pee?
Me: That's right. Just pee pee.
Astrid: You go pee pee already?
Me: Yes, I'm going pee pee. I'm almost done.
(This from the woman who when I first talked to Astrid's Pediatrician about potty training I used the word "urinate".)

When I pick Astrid up from preschool now she'll tell both afternoon teachers good-bye:
"Bye Miss Angie!"
"Bye Miss Marguerite!"
And say good-bye to her friends:
"Bye everybody!"
And sometimes hugs her friends before leaving. Very sweet to watch.

She's been singing "Brother John" a lot lately and one morning she stood at the front of our bed and told us to hush and showed us how she was ringing the bells "ding ding dong". I had a eureka moment - that must the song she's singing and performing at her Spring Program at school, which is why her costume will be overalls and a plaid shirt underneath - they're going as farmers!

The next morning on the drive to school on Monday, (after an evening with the babysitter on Sunday so I could go watch a movie), Astrid told me:
Astrid: "Mama? I miss you yesterday."
Me: "You missed me?"
Astrid: "Yeah. So much! I miss mama so much! I cry for mama."
Happy to see her expressing her feelings. Tugged a bit on my heart strings, but not a lot of guilt, because it was great to see a movie shot in China, about a true life story (and our babysitter is great - Astrid told me how she danced with her and read books to her).

Astrid can now hold up 3 fingers to show three. (holding up the ring finger is a feat for a 3 year old).

We have this puzzle map of the 50 states of the United States. It's not easy, especially since the pieces are free floating which makes some of the smaller cluster states especially challenging. Astrid used to always plead for help to finish the puzzle. (U. and I can't even count the number of times we've put that puzzle together.) One day I looked up and she had completed it all on her own without any assistance.