The birthday that was.
Ian's big birthday bash with 10 little boys didn't happen because we were all dead. Yup, we just withered away and died due to excess snot. Well, not really, but it sort of felt that way. In truth we decided to cancel the party because Jayden was still feverish and coughing like mad, and we felt it wasn't fair to him to have such a stimulating day, and also not fair to all the other kids that would be coming and exposing themselves to his disease. A week later we had my family over for dinner and cake. My sister and her husband were visiting from the Island, and Ian got presents. Thankfully Ian has no idea that he missed out on anything.
To remind you all of how sweet my first born is click here to see the post I did for his birthday last year (how lazy am I?).
Shortly after he turned two we braced ourselves for the Terrible Twos. They didn't happen. We congratulated ourselves for being such amazing parents, using consistent discipline techniques, and creating a perfect child. Then he hit two and a half, and the terribleness kicked in. There were tantrums every day, we were afraid to leave Ian alone with Jayden due to the biting and flesh wound inflicting that the baby suffered, and the outright defiance, disobedience, and general "you just told me not to do something so I'm going to do it right now in your face so there" type attitude our perfect child had developed. It was frustrating. There were tears, from everyone, often. As Ian approached his third birthday though, things appeared to improve. I don't know if it's anything we did as parents. Mostly I think he's grown, his communication is better and improving everyday, so what we do and say he understands more. Ian is definitely strong-willed and stubborn (a little like me, though Rob isn't such a push-over either). On one hand I'm frustrated when he becomes aggressive with other kids his age (he gets time-outs at church fairly regularly), and on the other hand I'm impressed that he doesn't let other kids push him around. He never cries when other kids push or hit him, he just hits back and makes them cry. We've really been working with him to try and get him to use his words first, or ask for help instead of hitting right away. So far he's only bitten Jayden here at home. I don't know what I'll do if he starts biting other kids.
We've started looking at a couple pre-schools in the area for September. We went to an open house at one last Saturday. Ian jumped right in and had a great time. After 5 minutes there he turned around, saw I was still there, and proclaimed loudly "Bye-bye Mommy!" I think he'll do pretty well come fall.
I love the new things that Ian is always learning to say. He likes to add words like "all the time", "anytime", "everytime", or "maybe later", "in a little while", and "just a little while". For example, my favourite, I say "I love you Ian", and he says "No, I love you too everytime right now!" Another common phrase he says often is "I NOT!" As in "Ian, lets go pee-pee on the potty." "I NOT!!!" So asking to use the toilet is something Ian has yet to learn to say. We've tried bribes, threats, begging, peer pressure, shame. You name it. We let him run around in just cloth underwear, or naked and he just pees on the floor and doesn't tell us unless we discover it. Being wet or making a mess just doesn't seem to phase him a bit. Maybe he's not ready.
To remind you all of how sweet my first born is click here to see the post I did for his birthday last year (how lazy am I?).
Shortly after he turned two we braced ourselves for the Terrible Twos. They didn't happen. We congratulated ourselves for being such amazing parents, using consistent discipline techniques, and creating a perfect child. Then he hit two and a half, and the terribleness kicked in. There were tantrums every day, we were afraid to leave Ian alone with Jayden due to the biting and flesh wound inflicting that the baby suffered, and the outright defiance, disobedience, and general "you just told me not to do something so I'm going to do it right now in your face so there" type attitude our perfect child had developed. It was frustrating. There were tears, from everyone, often. As Ian approached his third birthday though, things appeared to improve. I don't know if it's anything we did as parents. Mostly I think he's grown, his communication is better and improving everyday, so what we do and say he understands more. Ian is definitely strong-willed and stubborn (a little like me, though Rob isn't such a push-over either). On one hand I'm frustrated when he becomes aggressive with other kids his age (he gets time-outs at church fairly regularly), and on the other hand I'm impressed that he doesn't let other kids push him around. He never cries when other kids push or hit him, he just hits back and makes them cry. We've really been working with him to try and get him to use his words first, or ask for help instead of hitting right away. So far he's only bitten Jayden here at home. I don't know what I'll do if he starts biting other kids.
We've started looking at a couple pre-schools in the area for September. We went to an open house at one last Saturday. Ian jumped right in and had a great time. After 5 minutes there he turned around, saw I was still there, and proclaimed loudly "Bye-bye Mommy!" I think he'll do pretty well come fall.
I love the new things that Ian is always learning to say. He likes to add words like "all the time", "anytime", "everytime", or "maybe later", "in a little while", and "just a little while". For example, my favourite, I say "I love you Ian", and he says "No, I love you too everytime right now!" Another common phrase he says often is "I NOT!" As in "Ian, lets go pee-pee on the potty." "I NOT!!!" So asking to use the toilet is something Ian has yet to learn to say. We've tried bribes, threats, begging, peer pressure, shame. You name it. We let him run around in just cloth underwear, or naked and he just pees on the floor and doesn't tell us unless we discover it. Being wet or making a mess just doesn't seem to phase him a bit. Maybe he's not ready.
But he sure is cute!
Birthday cake at Grandma and Grandpa's house on his birthday.
Grammy and Pappa singing Happy Birthday. The 3 candle we got from Rob's mom broke so we used the 2 and 1 from previous years to add up to 3.
posted by Heidi @ 3/15/2007 10:41:00 a.m.
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