Three and a Quarter!

Three is flying by. I feel like I still stutter when people ask how old Forest is because my instinct is to say ‘2’, yet here we are, 3 months into 3. Most people assume he’s closer to 4/5 years old just from the size of him. It’s not just a height thing, but I feel like his body proportions are much more preschooler than toddler, and have been for a while. It’s those long legs and small head of his. 

Here’s a summary of his development over the past 3 months. 

Favorite book: Thomas and Friends 5 Minute Stories and Thomas and Friends Storytime Collection. These are both anthologies that contain about 12 stories per book (about 200 pages per book) and he wants to read them both cover to cover every single day. For his preschool registration one of the questions was, ‘how long do you read to your child every day?’ Um… AT LEAST an hour. Also ‘does your child have any special interests?’. Um….ANYTHING to do with Thomas the Tank Engine. 

Favorite TV show/movie: Anything Thomas & Friends. Next question? 

Favorite toy: Do you really have to ask? Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. After Christmas he has quite the collection of Thomas and Friends characters and he likes to re-enact episodes verbatim with his train tracks. 

Favorite food: Finally a question where Thomas can’t be the answer (although he does still request I feed him like a baby sometimes just so he can pretend the spoon is a choo-choo train. In this case it must always be a blue spoon and must always be called Thomas.). He loves Chobani blackberry yogurt, rice krispies cereal, bacon, and mac and cheese. He’s a great eater though his love for veggies is on the decline a bit. Also he LOVES frozen blueberries but won't eat fresh blueberries anymore.

Language development: We’ve only seen subtle development lately. His sentence structure is becoming more complex and his grammar and enunciation continue to improve. Unfortunately, he’s becoming more and more shy with age so is almost selectively mute in social situations. We’re keeping an eye on it. 

Cutest sayings: “Mom, did you yelled at me? Are you sorry now?” #mommyguilt  He also says 'surely' all the time which is super adorable. Like 'I surely need to watch a Thomas video.'

New Skills: Obviously, riding a bike is the biggest milestone of the last quarter. 

He easily can ride his bike about 4 miles and we've retired the jogging stroller in lieu of it. 

He’s also making huge strides in writing his letters. 

He knows most of the US states and has started adding loads of new sight words to his list. Now he will pick up a word when I’m reading and then point it out every time it reoccurs in the story. He can pick out almost all of the Thomas characters in text, because those are on the list of 100 sight words to learn before Kindergarten, right? 

Stats: I don’t know how much he weighs but I’d guess around 35/36 lbs. He is hovering right at 41 inches after his latest growth spurt. So 80% ish for weight and 95% ish for height. Solidly in 4T for pants and long sleeve shirts, even 5T for snug fit PJs, and about to outgrow his size 10 shoes. He can still wear 3T shorts and shorts sleeve shirts just because he’s so slender proportionately to his height. 

Schedule: Whackadoo as always. Like honestly I don’t even know what to put here. Soooooo we caved and gave his paci back after 4 weeks of sleep deprivation and he started sleeping like a dream. It’s been a week of 12-13 hours of sleep at night followed by a 1-3 hour nap and if he keeps it up he can keep that stinkin pacifier until college for all I care. He’s literally never slept this well in all his life. 

Without paci he was sleeping from 7pm-6 am and maybe napping 40 minutes 3-4 days a week and would wake up from naps crying hysterically for 30 minutes and then continued to be on edge all day. So that’s about 13/14 hours per day vs 11 which makes a huge difference in his demeanor. 

Other Observations: Nothing new here. He is full of energy and joy, shy and timid in social situations but a little chatter box at home. I worry a little about him socially just because he’s SO different at home than he is in public. His teachers say he does fine at preschool and that puts my mind at ease.  I think I just need to find him some buddies to have small play dates with like we had in California. That way he could practice his conversation and social skills a bit more. 

We do big play groups through my mom group but most of the kiddos are younger than him and he never does well in big groups. I was so shy that my parents held me back in Kindergarten and my paternal grandpa was so shy that they had to bus him to a different school so he could go to school with his cousins, otherwise he wouldn’t talk to anyone. Sooooo he comes by his shy and introverted nature quite honestly. That coupled with his boisterous energy level is quite a combo though! 

He's starting to like soccer and his favorite game is 'roll and kick' where I roll the ball and he kicks it back. We may start him in soccer this summer which may be good for his social skills too. 

He just re-started swim lessons and just so happened to end up in a class with one of his best buds from school.  The class is a bit remedial for him, skill-wise, but he loves getting some water time in the winter months.

My struggles: I’m probably jinxing it but I feel like we are in a smooth rhythm right now, especially with the re-introduction of the pacifier. The main thing lately has been that he wants so much attention and wants to play interactive things more. I used to be able to tell him to go play in his playroom and he’d happily play independently for an hour or more. Now he wants mommy to play with him all the time which is fine unless I have 1,000 other things to do and then that usually ends in a “Mommy did you yelled at me? Are you sorry now?”

I'm struggling with anxiety in general, not just parenting-wise, which makes me a bit more short-tempered than usual. 

The tantrums still catch me off guard and are much more frequent and passionate than they were when he was 2. However, I feel like he's pretty even tempered most of the time and can be reasoned with somewhat. But a lot of the time I have to bribe him with a Thomas video to get him out of a funk.

Momma said there'd be days like this.

Nothing fun ever seems to happen when Jonathan is home from Angola. All the really good stuff like the AC breaking, pipes freezing, trips to urgent care clinics always seem to happen when he’s gone. When he’s home, not only do things run more smoothly with an extra set of hands, but we seem to incur less ‘incidental’ events. 

I think the thing I dreaded most was the first time I would get sick when he was away. After not having so much as a sniffle since pregnancy, I have contracted two heavy hitting colds back to back. I’m not gonna lie, it has been tough! All I’ve wanted is to lay up in bed and watch TV while fairies brought me soup and hot water with lemon. But alas, I am the fairy godmother in this scenario so of course there are no sick days for momma. (This is seriously the worst thing about stay-at-home-mommimg. I really need to renegotiate my contract with Master Forest for more/any vacation and sick days.) 

To Forest's delight, we’ve been watching A LOT of Disney movies lately. Forest has been pretty well behaved, understanding when I say ‘mommy isn’t feeling her best, could you please go play in your playroom for a bit?’. On the other hand he knows I’m in a weakened state so has also taken advantage of that. I *may* have given him goldfish and a popsicle for lunch one day.  *I *may* have even given him his paci back as an act of desperation at naptime. (Luckily he chucked it out of his bed…unluckily he still didn’t nap). 

Once I’m feeling better (I feel like I’m on the mend, so fingers crossed!) I have a feeling it will be back to behavior boot camp since I’ve definitely been a little indulgent these past 2 weeks just to help things go smoothly with him. Also once I’m back to 100% I plan on putting together a little container of ‘sick day’ activities so the next time this happens I’ll be more prepared with some quiet, independent activities for him instead of just putting on movie after movie. 

Though he definitely didn’t complain about unlimited screen time, now he expects that everyday he gets to watch a movie. This morning he said ‘after preschool I will watch Cars and then tomorrow I will watch Pinocchio’. Honestly the first two days of this cold I didn’t have energy to do ANYTHING with him. Yesterday I at least had some energy to get out his paint supplies and do a few craft type things but he still watched two movies. 

I’ve been having a big fat pity party for myself the past few days for sure and really wondered how I was going to make It through without any family nearby.  But God provides and thanks to preschool hours I was able to rest a little and get to the store for some meds and soup fixings. I really need to be more prepared for things like this!! Any advice for parenting while under the weather? What should I have on hand for myself or for Forest the next time this happens?

Big Green Tractor

It’s been raining Noah’s Ark style in Houston lately which is a big fat bummer. Not only does it sourly effect my mood but Forest is a kid who literally NEEDS a physical outlet. I think even more than the typical boy, Forest’s physical needs outrank his peers. He thrives when his gross motor skills are in play and loves to be outside, even doing something as simple as running or splashing in puddles. 

Because of this we’ve always gently suggested that our parents buy him ride on toys that he had to actually propel himself. My parents obliged for his 3^rd birthday by buying him his first pedal bike and we all know how that turned out. 

Total obsession. 

For Christmas, my parents didn’t ask for my advice or permission for what they got Forest. Instead a John Deere tractor showed up on our doorstep courtesy of Amazon. It was quite a feat to keep this hidden from Forest until Christmas since it’s big enough to warrant it’s own spot in the garage. It’s so hard core that it comes with it’s own radio and off-road capabilities. Needless to say, Forest has been over the moon with his new tractor and I have been as well. 

Even at full speed (which let’s be honest, is the only mode Forest drives in), I can keep up with the tractor as long as I power walk whereas on bike rides I am always in sprint mode. 

So despite my original ‘only self-propelled ride-on-toys’ stance, now I find myself trying to sell the tractor versus the bike for our neighborhood excursions. 

The sun has come out today for the first time in a week and the next few days look gorgeous, so I am sure both modes of transportation will get some mileage after being so cooped up the past few days.