my threenager

he made this scarecrow project in preschool

i haven't posted for awhile because, man, life is busy!  z recently started preschool, i started a toddler virtues class, we have Bahai children's classes once a week along with a play group with some friends, and i have been working on some Bahai service related activities.  it's all life enhancing stuff, but just makes the week fly by.  but i wanted to take a moment to write about my threenager, so that i will always remember this stage, haha.  i remember reading a post from a mom blogger about a year ago talking about how the age of three is much harder than the "terrible twos" and she called it the threenager stage.  i laughed.  and then i thought, "no.  there is no way that 3 can be more challenging than 2.  i can't"  and you know what?  she was right!  hahaha.  but in a different way.  so far, for us, three has been an upgrade in intensity.  when it's fun, it's realllllly fun, and when it's challenging, it's reallllly challenging.  not to mention all the changes for us like binkie weaning, potty training, baby sister, and preschool.

show and tell with optimus prime

for the most part, z is pretty cool.  his comprehension and vocal skills have always been extremely good for his age, but at this point he can pretty much carry on a conversation with anyone and they know what he is talking about.  he is very good at articulating his thoughts, and only struggles sometimes.  that has been so much fun to witness.  i love love love having a conversation with him.  his debate and negotiation skills are on point.  actually, i have said that he should be in the hostage/terrorist negotiation unit because he is good; persistent, cute, and he doesn't give a crap if it's not possible.  and if all else fails, he can scream and whine really loudly for an endless amount of time.  but for real, i have really enjoyed this part of z's three-ness.  the stuff he comes up with is amazing, i am surprised and sometimes amused by his logic and reasoning.  it's the best.

big boy

also, the frequency of tantrums has declined from the peak this last year.  although the intensity has substantially increased.  i feel like there is nothing like a threenager tantrum.  maybe a fournado tantrum, haha, i don't know.  i guess we will find out.  but, he is more often than not, very pleasant.  and fun to play with.  he is really into imaginative play now, and it is the best!  it's so great to play along, or even just watch him play.  and lately, he has gotten hooked on these rescue bots characters.  it's from a show on netflix called transformers: rescue bots, and apparently it's a big deal with preschool aged boys as i'm finding out.  so after a few weeks of him watching the show and pretending to be a rescue bot and talking about rescue bots, we picked him up a couple when we were in california visiting family.  he was so so excited.  i've actually never seen him more excited about anything.  he has never really been super into any toy, although the toy vacuum cleaner we got him for his last birthday came really close.  but rescue bots.  man, the kid is obsessed.  so when we were there he acquired a few more as gifts from family.  and ever since we got back, about two weeks ago, he wants to look at all the rescue bot toys that are available for purchase through amazon, and he plans which ones he wants, which one he wants to get next, what they transform into, and all that.  he did choose to buy one with some money from his piggy bank.  we're trying to teach him that he can't just get new stuff whenever he wants, that he has to wait to get something as a gift for a birthday or holiday, or he can save up money that he earned to buy his own.  but, you know, he's three, so he gets it, but he doesn't really get it. but this experience has been so great.  we love watching him play with these bots and make up missions for them to complete and all that.  it's really fun.  and also, i have leverage now.  that sounds awful, but if he needs some motivation for some reason, or some sort of consequence for, say, pushing his sister over, i put a rescue bot in time out for a few minutes.  actually, i have only had to do that once and it worked well.  better than putting him in time out.  so, for now, he pretty much entertains himself with his rescue bots when he is not at school or outside.  oh, and he has bonded with other little boys that are also fans of rescue bots, a couple at school, and one boy that we just met when we were out and about, haha.  it's so cute to watch these little preschoolers talk about these bots.

so he decided that this little snail would be his pet and put it in a jar in the house.  after awhile we told him he should put it outside so that it can live.  he put it on the deck, and then we heard him screaming and crying.  when we ran out there the snail was crawling away super slow like a snail does and z was crying and was so sad because his pet was leaving.  haha.  it took the snail about 15 minutes to make it to the end of the deck.  maybe we should get the boy a pet.

and speaking of school, he goes two times per week for two and a half hours to a co-op preschool.  and he loves it.  sometimes i help in the classroom and some days i don't have to and i can just drop him off.  but he just does so well there, he gets so much enjoyment out of playing with the other kids, learning new songs, eating snacks (he is a big fan of pirate's booty now), and creating art projects.  his teacher is very sweet.  and so far he is always excited to go.  he even got to "show and share" one of his rescue bots last week and had such a big smile on his face.

some other new things; potty training and naps.  i think it's been a couple months now that we started the potty training process.  he does pretty well and will go by himself unless he is too wrapped up in whatever activity he is doing and then he needs to be reminded.  sometimes, if he is tired or really distracted it takes a little pushing to get him to go sit on the potty, but eventually he does.  he rarely has accidents.  we flew to california and he kept his underpants dry the whole time we travelled, which we were kind of worried about, but he peed on the airplane toilet like a champ, and even thought it was pretty cool.  i haven't started night training yet, so he is in pull-ups at night, although i plan on starting that training soon.  within the next couple of days here.  so, i think it has probably been a slow road, but i am happy that we are on the other side of it.

oh yea, naps.  so, i had posted about this previously, and was struggling with getting him to take naps, and struggling with bed time.  after talking to some peoples and reading some stuff, i decided that he may be nearing the age of nap weaning altogether.  then we kind of went down to a nap every other day or a few times a week.  i became ready to be done with naps.  when we went to cali, i decided to be done.  it just takes too much effort to get him to take a nap, i always have to lie next to him.  and when he wakes up he is super cranky most of the time.  sometimes he would nap for two hours, he was definitely tired, but would obviously wake up groggy and grumpy.  and then, on the days he would nap, it would take foreverrrrrr to get him to fall asleep at bedtime.  actually, it would take the same amount of time as his nap.  so if he napped for an hour, it would take an extra hour to get him to sleep for night, or two if he napped for two hours.  so yea, we're done.  he is still really sleepy in the late afternoons but has gotten more used to it.  and he goes to sleep so much easier.  so now, finally, we are going to get him to go to sleep on his own at night, and stay in his bed.  wish us luck.

i wanted to document some of the amazing things that he says at any given time, but i can't think of anything right now of course.  i'll have to start doing that on a daily basis so that i can remember.

he is such a big boy now, very tall, his gross and fine motor skills are improving all the time, he counts really well and is just way smarter than hubs and i were at his age.  he is thoughtful, he is friendly to strangers especially other children, he loves babies.  sometimes he is rough with his baby sister and sometimes he is a straight punk to her, but most of the time he looks out for her, shares his toys, advocates for her, and wants to make her laugh.  he is such a good helper.  he is very persistent at what he wants, but also sometimes can be lazy when it comes to something we ask him to do.  example: when he wants to take a bath, he takes off all his clothes by himself and jumps in the bath tub.  when i ask him to take off his clothes so that we can get dressed or whatever, he says he can't and whines until i do it.  even though we both know he has the ability to do it himself.  stinker.  but i am working with him on becoming more independent; dressing himself, taking off his own clothes, picking up his own toys and cleaning his room, getting his own water if he is thirsty, stuff like that.  most of the time he feels empowered and gets really excited to do things all by himself.  he is starting to link two things together to show cause and effect.  he loves playing with his baba, and helping him do stuff around the house.  he loves his mama, and says he will take care of me when i am old.  he is such a delight.  still a challenge, still keeps me on my toes.  but such an amazing little boy.