About the Kiddo: One post at a time: 2.49

A mere six months away from having a three year old? This can’t be real life.

I’m avidly working to complete our homeschool program. The goal is to start it on Monday - let’s see if I reach that goal. As I was sifting through a wealth of homeschool Pre-K programs, I found that Nolan really is beyond that curriculum level. In fact, if his language skills were better, he scored on a Kindergarten level for cognitive development. His fine-motor skills need some work though. All of the things I think of to improve these skills are of no interest to him either. [sigh]

But, we have our goals and we’ll see how it goes. If he does well with this program, we’re likely to start a Kindergarten program when he’s four or five, instead of waiting for him to turn six. That’s the beauty of homeschooling to me anyway - that we can take it at his learning pace.

He was sick a few weeks back, and when we were at the doctor I mentioned his speech again. More adamantly than in the past. So, in October he is getting his hearing checked and having a speech evaluation. Finally.

They look at me like I’m crazy, but I don’t care. Just get it checked already. Geez.

I’ve pointed this out many times already, but I’m not worried about Nolan’s social/emotional skills. Those are just fine. And he talks all of the time, too. So it isn’t a decrease in spoken language, either. It’s literally phonetic language. He’s still quite hard to understand, I think. I know as well as anyone kids develop at different rates and it’s all a spectrum. I’m just saying, if there’s a problem that needs to be addressed, I have no idea why a doctor would wait until he’s 3-5 to start working on it. So, guess we’ll find out more on that in October.

We were just in Missouri for 9 days! It felt like such a long trip. It’s hard being away from our own stuff. But, we had a wonderful time with friends and family.

He was so over the airport as we waited for our (delayed) plane to arrive. When it finally did, and we were lined up waiting to get on the plane, Nolan would watch the people ahead of us and then look at me and Cory and say, “This way!” A couple of times he’d even grab our hands and said, “Come on! This way!” Like, we were the ones not understanding, and he had it all figured out. Haha. I explained a thousand times that we had to wait our turn. He just liked his idea better, I guess ;)

Aunt Hollie had her wedding on Saturday, and we all survived it - a few days before I was beginning to wonder if we’d all make it out alive ;-)

Nolan was pretty antsy the day of, it was the last day of our trip too. So I think he was just kind of over it by then. He was the ring bearer, and I remember saying a million times, “I just really don’t think he’s going to walk down the aisle.”

Just minutes before the wedding he started crying. He wanted to go outside. He wanted to go bye-bye. He wanted mama. He wanted daddy. This, that, and the other. Poor fella.

I was the MOH and already on the stage, and when it was almost time for Nolan to walk, I could hear him crying. Oof. But, he walked all the way down the aisle and handed me the pillow. Lol. Brave little guy.

All in all, I think he enjoyed this trip more than others we’ve had. But we were all happy to be back home.

We’ve found a playgroup that meets on MWF that we’ve started going to, so I’m not at all worried about enrolling him in a preschool anymore. Man, some of those kids are ornery though. Nolan doesn’t even know what to do with it sometimes. Between that and us getting sick almost every time we’ve gone, I find myself joking more and more about it not being worth it.

We also have a close friend again, since our others moved away. We meet up with them at least once a week for play dates as well. So, as of right now, I’m feeling pleased with the social opportunities he’s getting.

He’s really back into a throwing things bit. Just whenever he gets frustrated at all, if he’s holding something he’ll throw it down. If he isn’t holding something, he’ll go get something just so he can throw it down. Sometimes, that boy needs a whistling backhand. But, I just make him pick it up and count it off like always. Sometimes he gets timeouts depending on the severity of the fit and length.

He learned to gallop - the first step in skipping. It’s pretty cute. And for some reason he thinks it’s hilarious when Cory or I gallops.

He loves to jump. The kid needs a little trampoline or something. But, ya know, the couches and bed work out too. (#parenting ;-)

He still doesn’t get sweets often, but the kid is obsessed with cake. Saturday when everyone started talking about the wedding cake’s arrival Nolan was like, “caaaaaake!” He’ll also just randomly ask for cake. I’m not even sure why. We only have cake in the house when there are like birthdays.

He loves turkey dogs and mac and cheese.

Still mainly drinks water and milk, but gets some sweet tea with dinner from time to time. If Cory and I are having it, I don’t have the heart to tell him he can’t have any.

Having a really hard time getting vegetables in him these days. He’ll eat green beans sometimes, and sometimes I can sneak broccoli in with chicken. But he’s really really defiant to veggies right now. And, yet, they’re on his plate everyday at lunch and dinner. So, hopefully we’ll get out of this soon. I do give him blended pouches a couple of times a week. And he’ll drink those banana/peanut butter/kale smoothies once a week. So, at least it’s something.

We let him pick out his clothes most of the time now - yay for autonomy. I usually give him a choice between two things, but when daddy dresses him it’s a free for all. Yesterday he had on blue/gray plaid shorts, and a bright orange/royal blue striped shirt and red shoes. Whew - lol. My OCD was like “no.”

We’ve finally been infected with a Frozen obsession. In the afternoons I usually let a show run while Nolan plays or does other things. Lately, he asks for Frozen every time. He never just sits and watches anything for long amounts of time, but he likes for it to be going so he can go back and forth between it and other things. He knows most of the words to Do You Want to Build a Snowman and to Let it Go. It’s adorable.

You’re not going to believe how taking away the pacifier went. I sure didn’t. When he turned one, we took the pacifier away during most of the day. He could have it only during room time and when in the car. Around the 18 month mark, he could only have it when in his crib - so only when sleeping. He’d done fine with all of those transitions, but when it came time for bed or nap, he was sure asking for the “passy.” Him having the pacifier wasn’t bothering me at all at this point. It wasn’t hindering talking, because he only had it when he was sleeping. And dentists have already proved it doesn’t affect tooth development unless they still have it when they're 4 and 5. But, it was still a thing that had to be done. And I dreaded it.

Well, you know how we always count things off for Nolan? One day about a month ago, Nolan found his passy during room time. So when I went to go get him and he had it I said, “Oh no, what did you find?” He pulled it from his mouth and said, “Passy!” I responded, “I think you’re time with the passy is up. You can have it for 5 more seconds and then you’re all done, okay?”

I counted off the five seconds, and he handed the pacifier to me like he didn’t even care.

When I went to lay him down for nap that day, for whatever reason, he didn’t ask for it. I was shocked, but thought I’d test these new waters and certainly didn’t offer it. I thought it’d be a disaster, but sure enough he went right to sleep without any problems at all.

I told Cory about it and said I thought it was a good sign that we should go ahead and take it away - we were planning to wait to the arbitrary 2.5 year mark before weaning completely.

After his bath that night he asked for it once, and I said, “You’re time is up with the passy, remember?”

He acted like that was a completely reasonable thing and ran off to play a bit before bed. We put him in bed that night and he didn’t say a word about it. And went to sleep!

Three days into no passy at all, and I was like “Oh I’m sure the screaming, tantruming withdrawals will happen any day now.”

But, they never came. Two weeks later he got pretty sick and asked for it twice. Both times I just said it was all gone or that we were all done with it, and he acted like that was fine!

It’s crazy. So… that’s the story of how I told my toddler he had 5 seconds left with the pacifier and he was completely weaned from it. My mind is blown.

But, hey, one thing down. Now, onward to full potty-training and crib weaning. [sigh] He’s such a good sleeper, I won’t mess with that too much. If he has a hard transition into toddler bed, we’ll almost certainly just revisit it at the 3 year mark.

Fun times ahead, for sure :)