33 Months Old!

Ian will turn three years old three months from today. Wow. It doesn't seem possible. I'm still adjusting to the notion that he's no longer our youngest child. He's not my baby any more. :-( I didn't write a post like this for him in July or August as I spent so little time with him I didn't know what to write about. Pondering that fact still chokes me up. The good news is that I have been home for 10 days and am able to write this month's summary.

1. His favorite song is "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho." He and Nadia sing this song many times a day, and it's the most often requested song during our bedtime devotions.

2. His favorite foods are Ritz crackers, animal crackers, Froot Loops, Oreo cookies (vanilla or chocolate), and toast with jelly.

3. The easiest food to get him to feed himself with a spoon is maple brown sugar cream of wheat. He'd prefer to eat a slice of toast as his meal three times a day. We've set a goal that he needs to finish each meal in 30 minutes. When he's eating something with a spoon (ex. applesauce, yogurt, etc.) then we alternate bites. I feed him a bite and then he feeds himself a bite. This involves a LOT of fussing and objecting on his part. He'd greatly prefer to be fed all the time.

4. He still prefers his EleCare to be served warm. He can now drink it from an open cup of any size (even an "adult" size cup).

5. His favorite book to read before going to sleep is How do dinosaurs play with their friends?.

6. Many, many times a day I hear the questions "Nadia (or Ian), do you want to marry me?"or "Ian, do you want to dance with me?," and usually the sibling agrees to get married or to dance. Their dancing involves a lot of falling down on the floor, which for whatever reason is great fun in their opinion. Nadia sometimes uses the "marriage" as a way of getting what she wants. For example she asked Ian, "If I am your wife, will you let me have the puppy" (a toy they both were wanting to play with).

7. They also frequently role play Moses and the Pharaoh. Several times a day I hear one of them saying "Let my people go" and the other child replies "No, I will NOT let your people go." If Nadia is playing the part of Moses then she follows this with a list of plagues.

8. Over the past 3 months there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of time the two spend playing constructively together. They still fight many times a day (over sharing toys, etc.), but now they really do seem to enjoy playing together more than they have in the past.

9. Ian will accept things from Nadia that he doesn't accept well from me. It's fine if Nadia pours water over his head to get the shampoo out. He doesn't cry if Nadia holds the banana for him to take bites of it. He loves it when she helps him in some way or another.

10. His naps have gotten much longer! I truly had given up hope this would ever happen, but it did! It's not a shocking thing for him to sleep for 90-120 minutes although  sometimes (like today) he still only naps for 45 minutes. It took a few days, but he's also pretty much gone back to not crying when we put him down for a nap or at bed time. We haven't had success yet with getting him to wake up in a good mood. He cries for an extended period of time after he wakes up from his nap.

11. He always wants Paul to put him to bed at night. Daddy is happy to oblige.

12. His favorite thing to watch on tv is the pirate treasure episode of Backyardigans. If we won't let him watch that (for the umpteenth time) then his next choices are usually either Cinderella or a Larry Boy dvd (particularly the Rumor Weed and Fib from Outer Space).

13. He loves pirates. He uses a wide variety of objects to role play a sword fight.

14. He sleeps for about 11 hours at night. Some days he wakes up dry. In the near future I want to try to train him to sleep in underwear at night. When he wakes up he often goes to Nadia's room first. I'm trying to get him to go to our room first because she's usually still asleep when he wakes up.

15. He loves to run and also tackle. We're trying to teach him to only tackle Daddy. In a couple of years hopefully Oliver and Ian will enjoy such activities together.

16. As seen in the picture above, Ian often has a small figurine (or two or three) in his hand. His favorites include Elmo and various characters from Winnie the Pooh (Tigger is his favorite).

17. He loves to wear costumes. If he was allowed, he'd wear a princess dress every day just like his big sister.

18. The five most often people/things for which he gives thanks in his bedtime prayers include: Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Maurice, cookies, and crackers.

19. Part of what has helped me speed up his meal time is the fact that he and Nadia are very competitive. They constantly yell "I win!" if one of them finishes eating first or gets up the stairs first, etc. They are equally excited about ties. They don't mind at all if they both win. Since both of them can be very slow at meal times, I have turned it into a race as to #1 whether they can beat the timer (take less than 30 minutes) and #2 whether they can finish before their sibling does.

20. He is obsessed with Knoebels. They haven't been there in 3 months. We're hoping to go one Saturday this month since we haven't been there as a family in 4 months.

21. He still loves crashing vehicles off the entertainment center.

22. He loves to hold Oliver.

23. He enjoys making roads and boats with Play-Doh.

24. He's getting a little better about not taking off his shoes in the car and in public places.

25. He loves blankets. He plays with a quilt my former handbell choir director made for Nadia all day long. He's also been known to take the comforter off our bed and drag it somewhere else in the house. I'm trying to break that habit as I don't like making my bed more than once a day.

26. Previously the only candy he had ever eaten was a lollipop. Now he has tried a few other types as well as fruit snacks. He also ate a strawberry cereal bar recently for the first time. Sometimes he asks to eat foods that he can't eat due to his allergies.