Julian is two and a half! We had fun singing to him and he kept saying it was his birthday, but I reminded him it was his half birthday. We celebrated by picking Dan up for morning tea (coffee time) at the Plaza Cafe in the stadium. He had a fun time and kept a good attitude when we took Daddy back to work.
Attitudes: my son is back! Julian is back to being his sweet and kind self. I don't know what he went through after Miles was born, but I didn't like it. I know he has to test the boundaries and push things...he is still doing that, but his attitude is so much better. If he whines, cries, screams, I don't always have to remind him to change it or ask him to go to his room until he's ready to talk nicely. He will now start screaming or using his ugly voice and then stop mid sentence and ask nicely. I'm so lucky! J still needs reminding at times, but I'm so thankful that he's learning to control himself instead of being controlled by me.
I love Danny Silk's book, "Loving Our Kids On Purpose".
J's language is developing so crazily. I swear he has better grammar than me. He says, "I'd like to lie down now." He tells elaborate stories. Search and finds are his favorite activity and he will talk to himself or tell me about everything he sees. I got him to tell Miles about them a few times. I hope that continues.
Story time has led to role playing and I LOVE IT!!! We are acting out Bible stories and lately I am Goliath and Julian is David about 20 times a day. He likes the fighting part, but we elaborate and he can now tell the story in detail. It's beautiful and I had a huge revelation about bravery from it. We're now using the word brave in our vocabulary, but not out of the common, "be a man, suck it up, be tough, be strong" but out of the "we have nothing without God, we're poor in spirit and God blesses us, when we're weak, he is strong, etc." It has been awesome to see this in my life and J's little life.
So tonight it was put in action. Julian is spending his first night in the big bed instead of his cot. He's a creature of habit and likes his crib, but has been talking about the big bed. It shouldn't be that big of a deal since he's been napping in our bed since he's been born. Today I napped with him in his bed (wow, I miss naps) and talked about it all day. He said he wanted to sleep there, but as Dan said good night and changed his mind. J refused to go in his cot and I loaded his bed with stuffed animals and he put them all in their proper place and has been asleep for a couple of hours. I hope he stays that way.
Julian has been sleeping very well. He wakes about 6 or 6:30 in the morning (thank you daylight savings spring forward). We are slowly working on dropping the nap and we can do it by being active, but if we're stuck at home, he naps. I do like having time to myself, but he's growing quickly and I keep reminding myself that he'll be in school soon.
I wish I could list off all he does and how he amazes us all the time. The problem that we've encountered is most people think he's a lot older than he is and expect him to act that way. He looks the part because he's so tall and his verbal skills are very advanced so he sounds like a 4/5 year old but is a baby. He's learning how to play with others and interact with all different aged kids and adults and I've heard other moms make comments to him that hurt my feelings because they just don't get it. I understand, I do the same. I expect a lot more out of him and thankfully he has done a great job, but then I think, "wow, he's just a 2.5 year old."
Example: Dan told him to lean over the table when eating so the crumbs stay on the table. I kept reminding him later on during the day and he wouldn't do it. I got frustrated and then realized, does he know what "lean" means? I told him and now he does it with almost every bite. I assume he knows it instead of teaching him...poor guy. We're learning.
About the leaning, yup, no booster seat. I miss it. The floor is much more messy. He also refuses bibs. When did he become so big? I don't like the extra work for laundry, but he's learning to be a neater eater (cute!) and also cleans himself up on his own. He loves to wash his hands with soap, but another favorite activity is to play in the silverware drawer and make us pancakes. I don't know where he got the phrase, but he likes to flip them with the spatula and tongs. hee hee.
Well, I must end this now. I'll update you on our transition to the big bed.
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