13 Feb 2015

Life with the 17 Month Old & 3.5 Year Old


It's already February?! ... its pretty much middle of February, which means Valentine's Day. Then Easter is around the corner, then our family holiday, Eli's birthday, another family holiday, Kai's birthday, Ian and I's birthdays, then its Christmas and then 2015 is over.

And of course we fill those key events with other celebrations that we don't factor in the year, like other children's parties, christenings, baby showers and weddings too. Don't get me wrong I love celebrating and I look forward to key milestones and events, it just feels like the year flies, which mean I'm getting older, and so are the boys. 

They're both so ... different again. Different from how they were a few months ago. 

Eli is more defiant than before. When he doesn't get his way he crosses his arms and pulls a big frowny face at us; or points his finger and does a raspberry sound; or yells "No! I don't want to!" I had that out of control, crying, screaming child at the doctor's waiting room the other day. All because I told him to share the toys with the other kids. I felt every eye on me as I controlled the urge to lose it myself cause I was so embarrassed. Its behaviour I didn't expect to be dealing with at three years of age.

It's such a challenging period. It's challenging cause you're trying to balance giving your child freedom to be themselves but also trying to teach them discipline and self control.  

To Eli's credit he's so helpful. I can give him instructions and he'll do it. He wants to help with the laundry, the cooking prep, bringing in the groceries .... and as long as he wants to help I let him. He wants to do things for himself too, like get himself dressed, choose what shoes he wants to wear with his outfit and make his own cereal.

He's definitely growing into his loud but sweet personality. He knows how and what to say to work us all. He'll call various family members and ask to sleep over or ask them to come visit him. He'll say the sweetest "Pleeighs!!" so you'll give him another cookie. He'll say "I'm sorry mum" when he knows he's done something wrong to get out of further trouble. He'll say "Thank you for taking me to ... " whenever it was you took him to. He narrates life and I love hearing it. 

Kai is walking. If you don't already follow me on Facies, (then you should) I posted a few weeks ago he finally started walking. We knew for a while he was getting close. He was standing against surfaces but was too scared to let go. But when we were in Queensland a few weeks back he finally had the confidence to start standing on his own and then taking a few steps.

Kai is still so clingy to me. He still just wants me to hold him, and if I don't he'll scream and cry until I give in. There could be other people in the room willing to hold him instead, but he always wants mummy. Its hard to do anything when he's awake. 

Kai still has a great appetite. He eats so much. He hears the fridge open and he gravitates towards it. He sees you bite or drink something and he'll open his mouth and say "Aaaahhh!!" As in he wants a bite, and he'll eat Eli's share after he's finished his. He loves to feed himself, actually anything he finds he puts straight in his mouth, even bark isn't safe around Kai ... he's such a little piglet. 

The boys are now sharing a room. We've purchased a new bed to accommodate them both and surprisingly the transition has been .. easy. At first Kai couldn't fall asleep as quickly as he could in his cot cause he had so many distractions, plus he's more mobile. We had to stay in the room to calm him down as he would get hysterical when we did leave. But by the third day he figured it out, and we could follow the same routine we had when he was in his cot. Eli has been a good kuya, keeping quiet when Kai has fallen asleep before him. We're no longer hearing Eli unsettled in his room for an hour before he falls asleep, it seems he's falling asleep faster now that Kai is in there with him.

They're playing together more. Kai has always shown an interest in Eli, but now Eli wants to involve Kai ... about 40% of the time. The only problem is Eli wants to play a certain way or wants Kai to do something specific, and of course Kai doesn't understand this yet so he does his own thing. So Eli gets frustrated that Kai isn't following his orders.

They grow up so quickly and they surprise me with their always changing personalities, or even the stuff they do or say. 
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