Our little Justin is growing up! Yesterday was his first day in the Eagle Room (the toddler room) at day care. He's no longer in the nursery with the babies, he's now with the older children. I was a bit worried about moving him up because drop off had become a teary affair since Row went back to South Africa and only last week he'd stopped crying. But surprise surprise....Justin did me proud! I stayed with him for a couple of minutes so he could settle down and see how comfortable I was in his new room. At first he clung to me and wouldn't leave me, then slowly he started getting up to get more toys and then venturing further away to explore but always coming back. After about 5 mins, I plucked up the courage to say good bye as Justin had found a box of toys that caught his eye. He gave me a kiss and a cuddle and said "Bye mommy!" and sat down next to his teacher with his box of toys. What a champ! At the dinner table last night Justin proudly told his daddy that he'd spent the day in the Eagle room!
Our little monkey is quite the chatterbox and loves giving a commentary of all the things he sees and hears. I dread the day when he can read and will tell me where I can and can't park and for how long and pointing out the speed limit. Justin is now counting up to 10 and will use every opportunity to show off his new skill; he'll count everything although sometimes we get a bit worried when he counts 10 toes on each foot! He also knows some of his colours like red, blue, yellow, green and orange. At first I thought it was fluke cos he started off with red and blue and nearly everything he has is either red or blue and sometimes he was right and other times not so right. But now he gets it right every time and he points out other the colours.
He has an extremely good memory so we really have to be careful about what we say and what we promise. Sometimes he'll bring something up that Row or I mentioned in passing and we'll be like, uh oh, better start being careful of what we say in front of this little sponge, goodness knows he might start repeating what goes on at home. He's also very observant! He'll point things out that we don't take notice of, like a picture of a shark on the side of the building or the digger on the truck that we just passed.
And he has answer for everything, always needs to have the last word! Tonight, while I was washing the dishes, Justin was emptying my tupperware cupboard. I commented that he was just making a big mess, his reply was, "I'm just playing!" When he made a move to leave the kitchen I asked him to tidy up the mess he'd made, he told me he was still playing.
Justin is quite the Dora fan but we've never made a point of telling him that Dora's a girl. Well, he has a Diego toothbrush and tonight, before brushing his teeth, he told me has a Diego toothbrush, I agreed with him. Then he said Diego is blue and again, I agreed with him. Then he said Diego is Dora's friend and I said yes, that's right, they're friends. Then he said Diego is blue and Dora is pink because she's a girl.
To end the post, one last story about our monkey. A few weeks ago, Justin and Row were bathing together. Justin pointed downwards and said "Daddy's winkie" then he pointed to his own and said "Justin's winkie." Row said yes, that's right. Justin said, "Mommy's winkie" and Row said no, mommy doesn't have a winkie, she's a girl. Row pointed to himself and said "Daddy's a boy" and then said "Mommy's a girl" and then he pointed to Justin and said, "Justin is a ...." and Justin shouted "... a monkey!" You gotta love the things they say *grin*