Sleepyhead
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A job well done
A funny thing happened on Tuesday afternoon. John and I had done some shopping and were finished at the grocery store, heading out of the parking lot, when a lady cut in front of me and blocked me. I was totally taken aback and managed not to hit her vehicle, but I did honk my horn several times and say some not so nice things about her. John was quiet for the whole event and then he said, "Momma, you need to be kind to people!" After I got over the shock of being chastised by my son, I tried to explain why I'd honked and all he kept saying was that I needed to be kind. Oh, and that honking hurt his ears! After he'd tattled on me to Daddy that night, we had a long discussion about how cars communicate. So now he knows that when I honk my horn I have something to tell the other drivers. And I used the same line of "you need to be kind" on Thursday when I picked him up from school and discovered that he'd pulled some little girl's hair on the playground.
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Faces
Sunday and Monday of Grandma and PawPaw’s visit was pretty low key. We played and read, went to church, and generally visited. While John played in the backyard on Monday, he granted me a few looks in my direction and a myriad of different faces. He was quite animated!
I needed to include this photo of John and Grandma. She got the gold star in reading on this trip. At every opportunity, John had her engaged with a book. On this occasion, it was Bible stories.
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The Party
We kept it simple this year. A Diego themed cake and ice cream party along with friends and family, both near and far. It was fun to have both Grandma & PawPaw and Nana & Papa Jim in the same house for the party. And to have our close friends and their kids there as well. But honestly, I'm not sure that we'll take this route again. There just is not enough room in our house for all the excitement. Or maybe it's just that my nerves can't handle all the excitement. Either way, I'm sure John will have definite ideas next year about his party and who he wants to invite. As it was, this year he kept insisting that we have a Ferris wheel at this party (oh, and that I could NOT ride it!). We quickly set it straight that there would not be any Ferris wheel at the party, but we did promise that we'd take him on one. We still owe him that.
After the party, we ordered in BBQ and generally relaxed. It was nice to have everyone to visit with, nut I was glad when the house was quiet once again. Ahh...
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A quiet day
Friday was our day of rest before the big party on Saturday. We slept in, had a big breakfast and a small lunch, and generally enjoyed the company. The weather was nice and so we spent some time outside as well. And JHP lapped up all the attention he could.
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Pizza, art and the grandparents
After school on Thursday, we drove to the airport to get Grandma and PawPaw for their visit. John was happy to see them and just about talked PawPaw's ear off on the way home. Since it was the Annual Art Show and Pizza Night at school that night, we brought the whole family along to enjoy the event.
We were all so tired from the day's' activities that we all slept in the next morning. So nice! An added bonus for us parents was that Grandma was bunking in the room with JHP. Who needs your parents when you've got Grandma?!?
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John at 3 - the book
What he's doing now:
We have finally gotten over the hollering to wake me up in the morning. For as long as I can remember (monitor or not) John has cried out when he was ready to get up. Of course, early on it was truly a cry. Later it became, "Momma, come get me!" unless he woke up in a grumpy mood. And now, he usually just waits around until I come to his room. For a while, he would get up and turn on the table lamp and play. Recently, that has not been the case because I think we fussed at him one too many times to stay in his bed. I have to say that I TOTALLY prefer waking to the real alarm clock as opposed to a child hollering/screaming/crying. I am much more pleasant in the morning now.
He is staying in his bed (again) and is a good sleeper. We've had to curtail his naps in order to maintain a reasonable bedtime. If allowed, he'll nap for 2-3 hours, but then he won't go to sleep until 9p or later. So we keep naps under 1 1/2 hours and all is well for the most part. We've gone back to calling nap time "Quiet Time". I don't think we are pulling one over on John, but he understands that napping is recommended but not required. Lately, he's reading books as opposed to playing during this time.
Other sleep related things: He loves using the blanket Nana made for him (called Nana's blanket) and cuddling up with it. He still sleeps with Mr. Bear and his blue blankie. Some nights I see him curled up tight with them. They are most important when he needs some comfort. He's a stomach sleeper like his Daddy.
He's good at drinking from a open cup and can handle the spoon and fork very well. His table manners are fairly decent except when he's trying to act silly to get your attention. And he'll often help set the table for meals.
I think for his age he is a pretty good eater. He likes to get into ruts and eat the same things over and over. I try to encourage changing it up. If you give him a choice of food, you might be waiting a while for a decision and might have to endure a change of mind or two. But if you make the decision for him without his input, most of the time he'll be OK with it. With the addition of some fruit, his nightly meals are the same as ours. He will try new things, sometimes on his own if you aren't looking. But a lot of the times, you need to "help" him try the food by putting it on the spoon or maybe even feeding it to him. This is definitely one area where he is not "Mr. Independent". I'm guessing our parental reactions have impacted this. But he eats all kinds of meats and veggies, although both in limited quantities at times. He likes rice and pasta. Mac and Cheese is a hit or miss, depending on the day. He doesn't like butter on anything. Bread is his friend as are chips, crackers, and anything sweet. He'll eat most fruit and likes raisins and craisins. He still loves water and milk and drinks restricted quantities of juice.
He's learned to ask "why?" and only sometimes beats a dead horse with the question. Just in the last week or so, he's started using the word "obviously" and using it correctly, although his statement is not always a truth. I often hear things out of his mouth that I've heard out of my mouth. The good news is that I've only heard him say one bad word and it was "damn". I quickly (and unemotionally) told him that he shouldn't say that work and neither should Mommy. That was the last I've heard of it. He comes up with funny stuff every so often, but I can't seem to remember those things. I need to write it down right after it happens so I can share it.
We often hear our not-so-nice-I'm-really-frustrated-with-you tone come out of his mouth and that is convicting. His most common response when he's not happy with you is to growl at you - Grrrrrr! I'm fairly sure that I do that although I'm not sure if I started before or after John came along. The growling has escalated in volume recently and so we've kinda clamped down on it. But I guess it's not a bad response considering he could have chosen a different, much more dramatic response. Speaking of tantrums, we have seen quite a few of these that were totally new territory for us. Some of them lasted as long as 30 minutes and involved lots of uncontrollable crying that really couldn't (or wouldn't be allowed to be) comforted. I'm so thankful that we've only seen a few and this isn't the status quo here.
John totally loves to be silly with Daddy. He loves to laugh and make funny faces. The problem is that if he laughs too much, he still gets hiccups. And continuing to laugh with hiccups is certain to bring things right back up from his tummy. It's hard for me to let go and be silly with him. I guess I'm just too serious. I need to remember that he's only this age once...
He's afraid of Wicket - sometimes. I think she hissed at him when he stuck a flash light in her face a few weeks ago. Ever since, he's can be anywhere from just fine to totally freaked out by her. And she hasn't changed. She's the most laid back cat and has never been aggressive to us humans (other cats are another story). I do think this is aggravated by the fact that he still doesn't like dogs. One yappy neighbor dog has ruined it. But we insist on introducing him to other dogs. He's got to get over it someday. Once, he even said he liked Uncle Jimmy's dogs and those are big dogs!
He still loves the outside - unless he's just woken from a nap and is kinda whiny. He loves to ride his tricycle and go for walks. He loves playgrounds. Usually being outside can turn his mood around.
John knows no stranger. It doesn't matter where we go, he usually talks to someone he doesn't know. Most of the time she's too busy flirting with them to realize that he doesn't know them. Sometimes he'll ask me if that person was a stranger, but most of the time he just wants to know what their name is. I'm not sure how we'll get the stranger lesson learned.
He has an opinion about the clothes for the day, but he does heed my advice if I tell him it doesn't match. And sometimes, he even asks me if things match. He can put his socks and shoes on all by himself. He can get his pants on, although he needs some help with getting them up all the way occasionally and getting them buttoned. He can get a pull over shirt half on, but needs help getting things in the right holes. He still needs help with getting jackets on, but I think he can do the zipper himself. And he can get undressed except for the shirt.
Potty trained - not really. He can use the potty to tee-tee, both sitting and standing up. He does this nightly before bath. But he's not interested in taking time out to go use the potty otherwise. He does keep things dry for long periods. I should probably at least put him in pull-ups. But he's totally not interested in going poop on the toilet. I'm afraid he'd hold it if I pushed the point. So I'm not. He'll get there some day, right?
John can write his name and you can tell it's John, but he's often impatient to move on to something else. He loves to writes H's, though. Big, tall H's. He's learned this at school, which he loves. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. And he loves that. I'm not hearing so many reports about misbehavior these days (It seemed like he was always in trouble in the fall). It's so cute to see the friendships developing between his peers.
He has mastered the mouse on the computer and loves to play around on the computer, either playing games offline or online. He loves his Leapster that he got for Christmas and plays it often on the car. And he likes to play the Wii. I think he' going to grow up to be a gadget guy...
"Sure" is his new response to most everything. And he's into making statements that are spoken very matter-a-factly. It's funny to hear it come out of his mouth.
I'm sure I've forgotten something, but maybe I didn't. I don't want to jinx myself, but I kinda feel like we've hit a good place. We can talk and reason with him (most of the time) and he is very pleasant. He still pushes his boundaries, but I feel like the discipline that we use is effective (most days) and in some cases he's beginning to self-regulate (oh, and impose the house rules on others - like it or not). We still have days were the emotions are crashing everywhere around us, but isn't that life with a 3 year old?
And because I hate to post without a photo... Here's one from his Birthday dinner at Chick-fil-a. SNBNA joined us for dinner and cupcakes. John had to lick the frosting off the top before taking a few bites of cake. The frosting then became a mustache and goatee of sorts. Talk about a mess! And the photo from the P&S does it NO justice! But he enjoyed himself and then wanted to go play some more. Gotta love Chick-fil-a! The adults had a nice conversation - uninterrupted.
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The check-up
We went to the doctor for his 3 year check-up today. It was a quick visit with only one shot. He weighs 31.5 lbs (50%), is 36 inches tall (10%), and has a head circumference of 51 cm (79%). He handled the exam well and didn't put up a fuss about getting a shot. But then the shot happened and he was pretty upset. I sure we'll meet some resistance next year concerning shots. The only area of concern has to do with one of his testicles which appears to be undescended. So we've been referred to a urologist.
After the doctor I promised a trip to get new library books. After collecting 13 books, we had to check them out. He's in charge of doing that. It does take a while because he usually gets side-tracked looking at the books I picked up.
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Upgraded sleeping conditions
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Legpits
While getting dressed for bed tonight, JHP said, "See my armpits?" and pointed to his armpits. Then he pointed to his legs, "See my legpits?" Daddy and I looked at each other quizzically.
"John, what are you talking about?"
"My legpits."
"Umm, where are you legpits?"
"Right here." pointing to the back of his knees.
Not sure where he discovered that concept, but Daddy and I thought it was pretty funny. And JHP didn't understand why.
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Getting ready for bed
Reading right before bed has been a good change. It usually calms him and that combined with a shorter nap has made for decent bedtimes as of late. We still have the occasional evening when John just doesn't want to settle down, but for the most part it's better.
One thing I don't want to forget about is that before we changed up the bed time routine we were in a pretty serious habit of "talking with the animals" right before bed. JHP would engage John and me in long conversations where (usually) we gave voice to the stuffed animal, much like a hand puppet. We'd talk about our day and various other stuff. It started to get out of hand and instead of settling JHP, it would wind him up. We opted to change the routine and put an end to the chats. But it was an enchanting time together and reinforced for me his need to spend some quality one on one time right before bed with us.
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Humoring Momma
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