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Donna's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 5/19/07 -------------------- 4/21/07 3/11/07 2/9/07 1/9/07, Entry 2 12/22/06 12/11/06 11/28/06 11/20/06 11/15/06 11/10/06 11/1/06 10/24/06 10/17/06 10/11/06 10/3/06 9/25/06 9/17/06 9/11/06 9/6/06 8/27/06 8/20/06 8/13/06 8/6/06 7/30/06 7/23/06 7/16/06 7/9/06 7/4/06 6/25/06 6/19/06 6/11/06 6/4/06 -------------------- Donna's Introduction

10/17/06 - My smart sweet little troublemaker

October 17, 2006

Since being so busy lately, I've realized that I haven't written much about what Justin is like now.  We have actually just had a very trying weekend with him, but I'd like to balance the positive and negative if I can.  So I'll start with the nice parts of life with Justin.  He is still amazing me every day by how smart he is and how quickly he picks up on new things.  He had learned his colors and a couple of shapes last year, but now he knows most of the shapes, and he is trying to count and say ABC's.  He can't say them all in order yet, but we have been practicing because he seems really eager to learn, and when he thinks about it and does it slowly, he can count to 20 (well he calls it 20-teen!).  He can also sing parts of the alphabet song in the correct order.  He memorizes books and will pretend to read them back to me word for word.  He pretends to write his name and he can draw some shapes.  Recently I introduced safety scissors and he practices using them every day and is quite good at it. 

He has always been good at putting together wooden puzzles, and he has several ranging from easy 12 month plus ones to 3 and up ones.  He can do them all, the harder ones he will sometimes ask where a piece goes, but I have been trying to get him to learn how to figure it out, and sometimes I will look over and be surprised at how much he has done by himself.

Imaginative play has been a big thing for him for the past several months.  It started with taking care of his stuffed animals.  He wanted a pair of pajamas on one of his doggies, and he will put them to bed, feed them, sit them in a chair next to him, and scold them when they are not listening.  When he was in diapers early this year, he wanted diapers on his teddy bear and doggie.  He pretends to make food and hands it to us "Here's a purple ice pop Mommy!", "Here's some pizza Mommy!" 

Sometimes he will do household chores without being asked, like putting his plate in the sink when he is done eating or sweeping up paper cutting messes.  He says please, thank you, your welcome, bless you, and excuse me at appropriate times, and is very well-behaved in public and at other people's houses.  Potty training was quick and painless; the only times he has accidents now is when he drinks too much water before bed or when he is sick.  And he is not sick very often – that definitely makes life easier for all of us.

So with all that said, one may think Justin is a very pleasant child to have around most of the time.  The truth is, we seem to be in extended terrible two's.  We have been dealing with behavior issues since just after his first birthday and honestly I am tired.  I try to be consistent, but there are times I do not know how to handle his behavior anymore.  I certainly didn't think that miraculously these things would resolve themselves by the time he turned 3, but I did hope that they would begin tapering off by now.  I do have confidence it will get easier (that's what I've been telling myself for 3 years anyway!), but it is a long and difficult road – one that I am convinced that God has put before me because this will be my only child and He wants me to experience it ALL.

Well I started writing this entry yesterday, and I was going to write about Justin's not so nice side today.  And wouldn't you know it, last night his behavior was pretty near perfect, and this morning wasn't bad either.  Although he didn't eat dinner yesterday (not unusual for him), he behaved nicely all evening.  He played with his toys and sat at his table cutting paper for a while.  He told ME it was time for us to brush our teeth!  Then after reading a few books, he said it was time to go to bed now.  Then he fell asleep within 15 or 20 minutes (that's quick for him).  Usually if he is tired enough to fall asleep that fast, his behavior is awful all evening.  Apparently he is trying to keep me on my toes!

With that wonderful display of how good he can be, how could I rant about his tantrums like I had planned today?  Obviously, he knows what we expect from him and he can do it, just doesn't want to most of the time.  I have no delusions that this will last, but it sure is nice of him to give us a break once in a while.  Back to the past couple of weekends, I will just say that this child can throw a tantrum or a whining or screaming session more intensely and longer than I have ever seen or heard of it done before.  For good measure he can also scatter the contents of toy bins throughout a room, throw toys and other household objects, and tell us how we are not nice because he doesn't like our rules.  Any little thing can set him off, from being overtired, to being not tired enough and refusing to take a nap, to not getting his way.  For example, I tried his Superman Halloween costume on him last week to make sure it fit, took a couple of pictures, and then put it in laundry.  He screamed for over an hour "I want my Superman" over and over again until he finally wore himself out.  I do think all of this is his own normal development, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with when it is happening.  Ah well, I suppose some of this personality he has will be beneficial to him as he gets older.

Challenge update:  Last week I tried to straighten Justin's bedroom and playroom.  He still has too much stuff, but at least it's all nice and neat for the time being.  I am trying to get him to pick up after himself more and put his toys away.  We have charts up for his morning and evening routines that we've been using for a few months.  They have pictures for each step so he can read it.  I've added Cleanup Time after Play Time, so we can start working on that, and as he gets older I can add a new chore periodically, so hopefully he gets used to helping.  Right now, he actually likes cleaning.  If I am using glass or wood cleaner, he asks for a paper towel so he can do it too.

Thanks for reading!
Donna and Justin

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