Oft heard phrases in the Goodwin household the last few weeks:
(While looking through a toy magazine) “Will you put this on my Mistmas list?”
“What we gonna do when Mistmas be here?”
“Layla wants this for Mistmas. Will you put this on Layla’s Mistmas list?”
“Look! Mistmas stuff (lights)! Do you see that?”
“Will you call Santa and tell him I said please when I asked for more juice?”
“No DON’T call Santa! Don’t call Santa! I want to be a good boy.”
I’m a “little” late posting this – back in June (2010!) but I found this in my drafts so it seemed a waste to not put it out there! Nanny and Auntie Chelle visited us so they could get to meet little Layla. Hayden took straight to Auntie Michelle and Nanny. It has been a while since he had seen them so you never know how things will work out. In fact at the airport I told him to run towards Chelle, I sent him running but it’s been almost a year since he’s seen Michelle, so it was funny when he got to her, gave her half a cuddle and then wasn’t sure what to do because he didn’t really know her.
He was pretty funny just after they got here. They arrived in the afternoon so we had a chance to sit outside for a bit. he wanted to go on a walk so I told him ok, but go over and ask them. He ran over and somehow, really fast kind of nervously, managed to say “Aunite Chelle, Nanny Mad, Mummy, want to go walk?” .. They obviously obliged and he was really happy!
Kara and I were very quickly surplus to surplus to requirements as far as Hayden was concerned. “Where’s Nanny?’ “Where’s Auntie Chelle?” He would want to take bath time with Auntie Chelle and play basketball (they would hang out in the bath for ages. Then he would run to the top of the stairs as soon as he got out of the bath and shouted for Nanny to come and read to him. Nanny, being Nanny, had a new book for him every night so he loved that (Of course Nanny was spoiling him, so he worked that out early on, so he’s “I want a new book”, “I want a cookie”, “I want a truck”, I want… :D.. What can you do – you have to let the grandparents spoil him….)!!! It was pretty funny watching a him standing jumping by the banisters shouting “Nanny!, Come on Nanny!” at full volume.
Everyone knows the expression “Terrible Twos,” but I can’t figure out why there is not an expression about three year olds. My friend Marianne would call her daughter a “threenager” when she was three, which is a great way to put it! As so many people who had been there before us warned us: three is harder than two.
I had Hayden’s parent-teacher conference with his preschool teacher last week. She was going on and on about how he is the best boy in her class, he is so sweet, quiet, and smart. Her only complaint was that he was too quiet – she worried that he was not getting his fair share of attention or worse that he was setting himself up to be picked on when he’s in a bigger class because he is so gentle. She asked me if he was like this at home. I couldn’t think of enough different words for “No” to answer her question adequately.
Hayden has always been a sweet, gentle boy, but in this developmental cycle we call “being three years old” he is definitely exerting his independence, trying to see what he can get away with, finding things he can control, and figuring out how to deal with things that frustrate him they don’t go how he wants. And the outlet to most of his frustration is me. Daddy gets his fair share, too. And, bless her, one of our dogs Lucy probably gets the brunt of it. Lucy has been known to occasionally eat things she shouldn’t, from tissues to his toys, and lately he has it stuck in his mind that if she is around him she is going to do something bad, so he’s constantly trying to shove her out of the room he’s in, get her on the opposite side of a gate to him, get her outside, etc. And if he can’t do that he’ll throw a fit. Lucy has a lot of things coming to her, but these outbursts are usually unwarranted, so that is something we need to get through.
It’s not just Lucy who can get under his skin, though. The list of what can upset him is quite lengthy. Many times if I try to do something for him and Daddy is home then that will set him off because he doesn’t want me to do it, he wants Daddy to. (Luckily when Daddy is not around we don’t have this trouble, otherwise we’d never get anywhere!) “No not you do it, just Daddy do it.” I do have to try not to laugh sometimes because it is SO “three,” but John and I both have had several talks with him about how that is not nice and that hurts Mommy’s feelings, but empathy seems to be a tall order at this age.
I could give examples until I’m blue in the… fingers… but the bottom line is the boy wants what he wants when he wants it – at home anyway. You get him with someone who is not me, John, or Lucy and he is a little angel. I guess that is the right way around – I don’t want him acting that way to other people, and I think it also just shows how comfortable he is with us that he can be that way around us when he is so reserved around others. And he’s not testy all the time, just more than he used to be. He still has moments in the day when he’ll smile at me, give me a hug, and say “Moooommmmmy” in his special way, or come up and give me a kiss out of the blue. The key to managing his behavior seems to be to prepare him for what we are doing or what is expected of him; he behaves much better if he’s been told in advance that we won’t be doing X (say, going out to eat) unless he promises not to do Y (not get upset if some of his food falls on the floor) – this is usually very successful. Of course, many things that come up are unexpected, such is life, and we all just do the best we can (including him)!
Little miss sweetness is eating “solids” now, which of course are not actually that solid but are quite soupy. We started her on them when she turned 6 months old. I started much earlier with Hayden (4 1/2 mos I think), but with him I was hoping it would help him sleep through the night. It didn’t (and then I wished I’d waited a little longer), and I don’t have that issue with her anyway so there was no reason to rush it. She started with baby cereal, and has had bananas, avocado, whole milk yogurt, and squash. She is not overly keen about this eating business. She spits out every bite but I just scrape it off her chin and keep re-feeding it to her and eventually she swallows some. 😉 I have found it really helps for me to warm up the food a little. I think she really like avocados, because a couple of days ago I gave her some and she was opening her mouth ready for each bite! She was into it.
Just like a certain “tractor” library book I never found (any guesses as to who that was checked out for?), this blog is long 
overdue! My friend Faith called me out on my blog slacking yesterday – thank you, Faith, for keeping me honest! Between work, the kids, and the biggest thing to blame the last couple of weeks – the holidays – I have not found the time to do a posting. I feel a little swamped right now, mainly just because of the holidays. I don’t think I should really complain about it, though, because the things that are keeping us so busy are mostly really fun things that we are fortunate to be able to do. For instance, this weekend was our neighborhood’s Cookies With Santa, where Hayden (and Layla) got to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas (plus did I mention there were cookies?). After that we went to Chuck E Cheese (don’t think they have those in the UK – it’s a pizza place with tons of arcade-style games for young kids) to celebrate Hayden FINALLY doing his number 2’s in the potty. Chuck E Cheese was the first incentive that really seemed to spark his interest in this particular area, so I’m hoping we have turned a corner now – he’s done it three times in a row now as of this morning. I know I am truly in Mommyland when I find this so elating, so please forgive me. Then yesterday we went to the Colts game. And between all this fun stuff every moment is stuffed with something – getting Christmas cards designed, printed (I had to go to three different places before I could get them right – can you believe it!), buying envelopes and stamps, stuffing, stamping, etc, buying presents, wrapping presents… ok I’m starting to get ahead of myself because I haven’t gotten that far yet, but it’s on my radar! The trouble with the wrapping is that Hayden doesn’t nap anymore, so the only chance I have to wrap his presents is after he’s asleep, and after a long day of work or running around with a 3 year old and a 6 month old I haven’t yet mustered up the energy to tackle that. But it will happen – it’s crazy busy for everyone this time of year and we all find time to get everything done (or at least all the must-dos – I’m starting to realize some things just won’t get done, like taking Hayden to see Polar Express which I was hoping we could do this year). We still have to come Christmas parties and events, a Chris Isaacs’ concert, a Christmas symphony, and what’s that, Work? You want me to work the Sat before Christmas? Oh goodness, it would simply be my pleasure! 😉
Does this even count as a blog post? Let me start another one and see if I can stay on topic. The kids, right! The kids.
Hayden and Layla's Place 