We can't believe our little boy is turning 3 next month! Even while we were in SA and my parents hadn't seen Justin for a week, they said he had grown taller. And definitely when we came back home 3 weeks after Row, he said Justin had grown even taller.
Justin's vocabulary exploded and his pronunciation became clearer while we were on holiday and we're not sure if that's because he had so many more friends and other adults to interact with or if he just went through a learning period where he had been slowly soaking everything up and now it was just coming out. Justin talks so much that we call him a chatterbox, he talks from the minute his eyes open in the morning till his eyes close at night. His latest is now answering our phones, both the house and mobile phones, and will have conversations with the caller, telling them about his day, what he's currently doing and then say good bye and hang up. He is so possessive about the phone that Row and I are not allowed to talk on the phone so if this ever happens to you, please don't think we are being rude....when we are able to grab the phone out of Justin's grubby little paws, we will call you back!
I am very happy to say that Justin is now potty trained!!!!!!!! I was contemplating asking my mom to help me while we were in SA but wasn't holding my breath. The entire holiday, everyone was encouraging Justin to go to the toilet like a big boy....nope!!! He was not interested. And all it took was one girl! We were invited to dinner at a friend's house, Hazel, in our 2nd last week in SA, and she has a 4 year old girl called Iman. While we were there, Iman needed to go to the toilet and Justin followed her and said he also needs to go to the toilet. He pulled his pants down and undid his nappy and Iman looked at him, looked at the nappy and said, "What's that? Are you a baby?????" Well, that was the end of that....Justin refused to put the nappy back on and luckily he was wearing a pair of underpants over his nappy so he put that on. I was vehemently trying to convince Justin to put his nappy back on as we were guests in someone else's home and I did not want any accidents. After a tantrum and lots of tears, I relented and warned Justin that he had to tell me when he needed the toilet. He was so good, he went to the toilet every half an hour for the rest of the evening that we were there and I managed to get a nappy on him for the long ride home. The next morning, I held my breath to see if he would take the nappy off because Iman wasn't around anymore but Justin remembered and went to look for his underpants. And he's now potty trained except at night. We've had a couple of accidents but I guess that's to be expected. And all it took was 1 girl!!!!!!!
And the independence! Everything is "I do!" and this goes from choosing his own clothes, dressing himself, going to the toilet and washing hands to bathing himself, putting his own shoes on, pouring a drink, oh goodness, it could be anything. Heaven help you if you try help him! We've had a lot of tug-of-wars between us trying to show/ teach Justin how to do something, him saying,"I do it!" and all parties involved getting frustrated and impatient. On the bright side, he can now dress himself, he can go to the toilet and wash his hands, he can bath himself and wash his hair, he can brush his teeth and he can put his own shoes on. I guess as a parent, you do have to let go and let them learn otherwise they will always rely on you. On the other hand, he has become so lazy at feeding himself unless he's really enjoying the food (like spag bol) or there are other children around that I end up feeding him just to make sure he eats.
The adventures of parenting continue...it's time consuming and requires a lot of patience but the laughs and giggles and kisses and cuddles sure make up for it. Can't wait to see what else this little monkey has in store for us.
Some "I do..." moments
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| "I take a photo!" |
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| "I make breakfast." |
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| "I vacuum." |
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| "I water the plants." |
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| "I wash dishes." |
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| "I cut your hair!" |
