3 Years Old-I'm a Preschooler Now!

Ok, so I'm a bit late.  Blame it on a crazy work schedule followed by family illness and I'm almost a month late writing Peyton's 3 year old blog.

I know I say this every time, but I can't believe he's 3 already!  Talking in complete sentences, counting, starting to recognize letters and sounds, a puzzle whiz, and making friends like crazy.  The logic of a 3 year old is both dizzying and entertaining.  Peyton will bring up a story that happened 6 months ago like it happened yesterday and then jump to something that happened that day.  He loves to talk too.  He'll talk a blue streak for an hour straight in the car.

He's still such a boy.  He's learned how to ride a bike with training wheels and would do it for hours if we let him.  He still loves his baseball...and soccer, and football, and golf.  He's still in gymnastics, and thanks to our friends and family, will get to take classes again next fall.  He's obsessed with the typical boy things, construction equipment, cars, the movie Cars, Toy Story, dinosaurs, trains, etc.  He loves to go to the zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

As I think all little boys do, he wants to be just like his Daddy.  A recent bag of hand me downs had boxer briefs in it, "like Daddy's" and he only wants to wear those.  Sometimes the only way to get him to eat is to have it be from Daddy's plate.  He also loves to help, almost to a fault.

He's a great big brother, most of the time.  He definitely has difficulty with the concept of "gentle."  Sierra has been knocked down, hit, and smacked more than once.  He does love his little sister though.

We recently changed daycare, which was initially hard on Peyton.  He'd been with Miss Lisa for so long. He's getting used to going to Miss Jamie's now and loves that there are other boys his age there.  I'm happy because she used to teach kindergarden so he often comes home with projects that they've worked on that are educational.  Plus, he's getting a nap again...thank goodness.

With how amazing this age is with the budding of a little person with a mind of their own comes the frustrations of a little person with a mind of their own.  The temper tantrums are epic.  The whining, grating on the nerves.  The inability to fully understand and express causes frustrations in both boy and parents.  The word "NO!" is yelled at least a couple dozen times a day.  Learning how to navigate this age hasn't been easy on any of us.  It's a learning process and a pretty tough one.  The newest thing is possessiveness.  Everything is "mine."

For his birthday we went to Red Robin again this year.  This year he got it.  This year he was excited it was his birthday, he told everyone.  He's three and he's proud.  We also had a "play date" at the park instead of a party with some of his friends.  He had a great time and talked about it for weeks.  Now he's excited about Daddy's and Mommy's and Sierra's birthdays, which he thinks for them all we should go to Red Robin.  Love that kid.  He's awesome and it's such a privilege to get to watch him grow up.

An Anecdote Not To Be Forgotten

I had to write this down since it will probably be forgotten and I don't want it to be.  I just had the most curious and cute exchange with Peyton.  I put him to bed and he was really good because we just started a sticker chart for going straight to bed without crying or calling for Mommy over and over.  Because Zack is out of town and I am doing all the nighttime duties myself I forgot one, going to the potty.  Peyton and I must've had a psychic connection because I realized it and he called for me almost simultaneously about 30 minutes after he went to bed.  We went in the bathroom and he began to tell me something I couldn't quite understand, but it was so cute anyway.  He got on the toilet and began telling a story about his cape and being in the wind and getting knocked down and it hurt.  I was sitting on the stool waiting for him to be done listening to this.  He told me that when he was in his room he was talking to me (pretending) and had told me this story about the cape.  When he was done he went back to bed, I tucked him back in, and he said "Thank you, Mommy for sitting on stool and listening to story about my cape while I was on toilet."  He gave a huge cheesy grin and commenced to begin pretending again in bed, but quietly, so that he can get his sticker in the morning.

I'm a Big Boy Now

Peyton is doing so well with potty training!  He's gotten 3 trains so far from the Thomas the train loot we scored from one of Zack's coworkers and is a present every time he makes a potty training milestone (telling us when he has to go, staying dry at daycare, making it through naps, etc.).  Peyton can't stop talking about "Big Buzz" which is the promised gift when he is fully potty trained.

I'm blogging to talk about the new structure in Peyton's life.  This week we've started a lot of new things.  We've enrolled him in the Little Gym on Wednesdays (which Daddy will have off starting next week so that we can rotate who goes with him), he goes to Miss Lisa's for daycare on Mondays with Sierra, and on Fridays we have started a co-op preschool with some of the MMMamas for 2 hours.  The goal is to get him interacting with kids his age more, give him structured activity and direction following and so that school isn't such a shock.  There is also the option of activities on Tuesdays (Roxborough State Park's toddler activity) and Thursdays (story time at the Roxborough library).  I think it's already benefiting him because today, for the first time, he went and sat on the carpet with the other kids at story time instead of with Mommy.  He even interacted with the songs a little bit.  My baby boy is growing up fast.  I just hope we can do right by him.

Camping at 2-A whole new world

So we went camping last night at our normal, close to home place, near Deckers. It was Sierra's first camping trip, but more importantly it was Peyton's first camping trip he may remember. In the morning before we left, he woke up and wanted to read a book, so I decided we would read his books that pertained to camping. He was SO excited to be going camping like, George (curious George). I went to my 6 week follow up appointment at the midwifery and Daddy and Peyton packed for camping. He was so helpful and as soon as I got home from the appointment he started asking about camping. What was more amazing was while we were on the drive he started talking about gathering water from the pump in a bucket (like curious George) and we had to explain we were going to a campsite without water to gather, so we had to bring it ourselves.

Once we got there he wanted to help with everything. He helped erect the tent and carry stuff from the car. He wanted to be in the tent at all times and was so excited to have his own headlamp that it was on long before dark. He wrestled with Daddy on the air mattress (which now has a hole in it) and by then was extremely tired. He'd had no nap and became super cuddly. He sat on Daddy's lap and made Daddy's day. He soon switched to Mommy's lap and then back to Daddy. He wanted to know all things outdoors. The moon, the sun, the dirt, the bugs...it was all so exciting and new.

In the middle of the night he woke up crying. Was he confused about where he was? Was he scared? Who knows, but he went back to sleep on Daddy and slept until morning. He was so exhausted in the morning, though, that he was super fussy. Less than half way home in the car he fell asleep and slept in the car at home for at least 45 minutes and then went back to bed for another 2 hours or so. That just doesn't happen.

We can't wait to camp again, with plans to do so next week. Things are so different with him now. Daddy took him on a walk to explore. We talked about bugs, trees, the moon, the sun, and animals that might wander into camp. It is so amazing to give to our child the experience of sleeping outdoors and discovering the wild. He's been camping since 6 weeks old, but now, he remembers, repeats and enjoys. I love this part of being a parent. Experiential education...it's how we go to go on amazing excursions with TRiP at UF and now, it's how we will introduce our 2 year old to the great outdoors, bond with him, and teach him to preserve the planet. Life is good.

2 years old and acting like it

Can you believe it? Peyton just turned 2! It's hard to believe it was two years ago that he came to join our family. It feels like he's always been here. He's such a boy too. He loves his baseball and being outside. His knees are always skinned and he bumps his head several times a week. His legs are always several shades of black and blue. The theme for his birthday this year was camping and baseball. For the baseball he got a glove and ball (way too big for him, but he has hardly taken it off since he got it several days ago), Rockies pjs and a jersey along with tickets to the game on his birthday. That was a bust, though, with a freaky cold front blowing in forcing the game to be snowed out (it snowed 2 years ago too, on the night he was born, but it hadn't been 84 degrees the day before). We'll just have to trade in the tickets for another game along the way. He was disappointed, but took it well. As far as camping goes, he now has his own camp chair and and headlamp care of his grandma and a camelback to wear hiking. I'm not sure how much he'll get to use this stuff this year with the new baby due in June, but it'll work for him for years to come. He also got a Woody doll from Toy Story and is getting a bike helmet (we got a scooter on Craigslist for him, but with how much he falls he's not allowed to try it until the helmet gets here) from other family.

We went today to his 2 year well child visit. He weighs in at 25 pounds and is 34 3/4 inches tall, just shy of his Daddy's goal for him to be 3 feet by 2 years old (in order to get to 6 feet by adulthood-have you seen his parents? Not gonna happen). As usual, he was well ahead of normal in the motor development chart, doing a lot of 4 year old activities. He runs, jumps, rolls, throws, kicks, hits a baseball (from a tee or pitched to him) at a level well beyond what we would think possible. His climbing is only limited by his lack of height. He also loves to color and draw and is starting to talk up a storm, which is good because the temper tantrums he throws when we don't understand what he's saying are amazing. Speaking of tempers, he has one...big time. He gets frustrated easily when he can't do something right (like his mom) and has a short temper (like his dad). The terrible 2's have been upon us for some time now, and they aren't fun, but we know it's just a phase, and every time we successfully come up with a strategy for dealing with one of his triggers, it feels like a major victory as parents.

He seems happy now about the new addition that is joining our family in June. He kisses my belly and tells Sierra hi. He gets a "kick" out of her kicking him when he sits on my lap at night. We are dealing with a little bit of reverting to baby-like behaviors, cuddling more (which I'm not complaining about), wanting to be carried, and refusing to potty train even though he knows full well how to use the toilet, what it's for, and when he needs to go. That's probably the most frustrating. We really wanted him potty trained by baby time and with only 3 months left (and my energy for such things waning) it's not looking good. Maybe it'll just happen one day, like him starting to repeat everything we say (that happened overnight). We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Every day is a challenge, but a wonderful one. It's a journey we wouldn't trade for anything. And when you sneeze and hear a little voice say "tat-too" (bless you) or you give him a toy he wants and you get a "tankcoo" (thank you) and an occasional "I wuv you" followed by the most fabulous hugs and kisses in the world, you feel like your doing things right and he's on the right track.

Ear tubes!

Today Peyton had surgery to put tubes in his ears. It was a tough decision, especially for me who didn't want my little boy to have to be under anesthesia, but after 5 ear infections in 8 months and many many sleepless nights up with a screaming child, we determined it was for the best. We were further justified when he went to the ENT and they tested his eardrums for movement (a measure of fluid behind them) and they were deemed "flat" basically meaning they weren't vibrating the way ear drums should because of the pressure. Everything went great. I only got teared up when they took him back and he started screaming and reaching for me. Zack came and stayed until he was released. He had a ball before the surgery with so many nurses to play ball with him, which was good since it was 6:30 in the morning and an hour before his actual surgery. That's a long time to keep a 20 month old occupied who's been not allowed to eat and drink since 8:30 the night before. Afterward he cried for about an hour or so, but was pretty cooperative. He even took the tylenol with no problem that the nurses said was not the good tasting stuff he's used to. Right before we got home he finally stopped wailing and is now back to his old self. The doc said we made a good decision because the left ear was all pus behind his eardrum (and is still draining like crazy) and the other was a mix of pus and mucus (yuck). He's showing no signs of having any ill effects from the anesthesia. The doc said he'd most likely puke at least once, but he's had a whole cup of milk and some crackers and is playing and acting fine. Amazingly, he's even keeping the cotton ball in his left ear. He's such a little trooper. I thought we'd have a lazy day sitting around watching TV, but he's not in the mood to sit still. I wish he'd go nap so we could get some errands done since he's doing so well, but he doesn't even seem tired. So it looks like we made a good decision. I can't wait until he's healed to see if there are big changes in his speech and sleep patterns.

1 1/2 years old and no longer a baby

A year and a half, 18 months. Time flies. We no longer have anything resembling a baby on our hands, we have a budding little boy. A little boy who loves to throw the ball, climb, run, and flip, mimics everything we do, throws temper tantrums with the best of them, cuddles better than anyone on the planet, and has a litany of priceless faces that we recently memorialized in a collage photo. He is also a little boy who has gets sick every time he's teething, refuses to sleep through the night, and tries our patience at times as he pushes the envelope to see what he can get away with.

At his docs appointment he was 22 lbs 14 oz, 33 inches. He's getting taller and skinnier dropping down off his weight growth curve and moving up on the height curve. This could also be because our once connoisseur of fine foods, who would eat everything but meat, suddenly doesn't want to eat anything. He's too busy to eat. You can almost see the changes in him cognitively. He's wanting to say more and more words, is spending more time on activities that test his brain, like the shape sorter (which he can now easily do and does over and over and over), coloring, looking at books and trying to say the words that go with the pictures, and participating with the TV when he watches his favorite show, Play With Me Sesame. He is also on the road to potty training, often taking himself to the potty during the day (now if we could only get his babysitter to offer him the potty more often, he might be 100% trained by the end of the month). His joy in life is making us proud as can be seen by the grin on his face and his self applause when he does something right. We've got him putting away his toys before bed every night, which is one of his favorite games-we'll see how long that lasts. We are working on the Gator chomp. That should be good to go, hopefully by the UF/LSU game this weekend or next week at the latest:)

Every time I blog, I think, this is my favorite time. He's becoming such a little person. His personality is a joy. He loves to sing and dance and seems to be very musically and athletically inclined, which should be genetic since both his parents were both athletes and musicians. He is the greeter whenever we are out somewhere of all who come near him. He waves hi and gives a big toothy grin. I had a guy stop me in the grocery store one day when he was in the Ergo on my back and I couldn't see him, to tell me that Peyton made his day because he looked over at him, gave him a huge smile and started waving. That's our Peyton, he's a real people person. Unfortunately for me, but good for him, he has been going to his baby sitter's house more lately as I have begun working more and Zack changed his schedule. He loves spending time with the other kids, plus there is every toy known to man at that house. When I pick him up he is typically covered in dirt, food, markers, paint, or something to show he was having fun. It makes it easier for me to leave him, but harder because I'm not getting to spend nearly the time with him that I was.

We are so pleased by how Peyton is turning out, temper tantrums and all. Now if only we could get over the never ending cold/teething and get him sleeping through the night, life would be perfect.