My boy is now 3 years and 8 months, even though I still often refer to him as being "three and a half". The home-straight to 4 years old is now in sight. Don't mention his going to school! I will be bereft! Totally!
Anyhow, Said It Saturday has been neglected of late. I was in bed tossing and turning just now and decided to get back up and turn the computer on.
I haven't been up to my old trick of making a note of every remarkable thing Aaron says on my phone. Life is too hectic, too fast and furious to have chance to stop and type as a memo each time he says something note-worthy (which is now every 5 minutes).
So instead, I will have to rely on my memory...... yikes no pressure considering it has not worked since I gave birth!
What I want to say is that the words are getting longer. He can often be found saying:
- similar
- disgusting
- actually
- today he said "pavement"!
- definitely
- certainly
Today we played "snap" for the first time and I taught him how to say that Mummy was "shuffling" the cards. It was hilarious what he was saying before I emphasized each syllable and he "got it"!
He's now at an age where he expects his instructions to be obeyed. So if he tells his best friend something, he gets VERY frustrated when he does not follow his commands. His BFF is 5 months younger than him, so that DOES happen, and cue a big reaction from Aaron. "He's not listening to me" (oh Aaron if only you could realise that is how I feel when you don't listen to ME!!!!). Today he wanted him to eat because he was eating, paint the giraffe (I bought them two wooden ones to paint from a new shop called Tiger) and climb up the Spiderman net (and NOT the ladder) at the park. He can be VERY bossy and likes to be "heard"!
For some reason, in recent weeks, he always tells me what's on his mind. The sentences start with
"I'm thinking about..."
I don't know if it is an Aaron-ism or something that's been encouraged at school.
At any given random time, when you hear the words "I'm thinking about..." you know you have to stop what you are doing and listen, really listen. It'll always be something DEEP, and nearly always be something from the distant past (that you would have thought he'd have forgotten about). Thanks to the fact he was an early speaker and has a great vocabulary he can really tell me what's on his mind. It is the biggest lesson for any parent who excuses bad behaviour by saying "uch, s/he'll forget about it". Nope, they don't. I guess they're just sometimes too young (or trying to grasp more than 1 language) to be able to express themselves.
Aaron's "thinking about" the sheep that he saw nearly 6 months ago, in Ireland, who had a red raw bum (I think it was eaten alive with maggots or something like that). He remembers shutting his fingers in a door which I think was a year ago. He remembers trips to the zoo and Thomas Land in terrific technicolour detail!
He dreams what feels like every night at the moment, and really enjoys telling me, in great detail, about his dreams in the morning. He'll put emphasis on certain words, in a hilarious way. You'd have to BE there, but if you are the Mum to a toddler you will know what I mean.
Oh and his favourite words at the moment (despite the awesome/extensive vocabulary) are:
Pee pee
poo poo
bum bum.
THIS I know is a phase that they go through at this age, and he is loving it loving it loving it. At the moment, when he is at his most happy and most loving he says "Mummy poo poo" or "Daddy poo poo". I asked him to say goodbye to someone a teacher at nursery the other day and he said "bye-bye [name]-poo poo". She looked HORRIFIED, so I explained that's what he calls Mummy and Daddy (I didn't get chance to say in a good way) but I was trying to say that Aaron was putting her on the same pedestal he has us on, it was a compliment. But she clearly didn't get it as she said "that's terribly unkind Aaron". I left the building with a heavy heart. We're not going to stop him saying it, as I feel vibes and when he is saying it, there is only joy, sheer fun and joy exuding from his every pore. It's a phase and it is a FUN phase. Shucks there are MUCH worse things he could be saying! Reader, what do you think?
Anyway, I am feeling tired now, so I may end this here and say "over and out" "night night"
Edit: notice how I felt "tired" the minute I wrote about something that had a negative effect on me (above). This is why being encouraging and positive is so important (that is a note to MYSELF as much as anyone else by the way) as look at the PHYSICAL effect it has on oneself.
Yet, after publishing this post, I saw a tweet from +Nickie O'Hara and ended up watching an 11 minute video as a result and engaging in lots of tweets about it. The tiredness was a response to the heavy energy generated by writing the above (and remembering the feelings it generated in me). Anyway, lesson learned. I seem to need to learn the same lessons again and again and again at the moment but I WILL get there. Sad that it's taken me till +40 though.............!
Liska xxx