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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

10/24/06 - Halloween party and the wonderful threes

October 24, 2006

Saturday evening we went to a Halloween party.  Justin dressed as Superman, and I was a hippie.  I wore a peasant shirt and jeans, and a peace necklace leftover from his birthday party goody bags, and my hair down.  It was fun, although a little more candy than I like him to have.  He was really excited to wear his costume.  There were six kids all together, and three of them are his cousins.  We got home late, and he didn't get to bed until almost 10pm.  He did really well though, and did not throw any fits when we got home.

Which brings me to his new behavior.  For over a week now, he has been so well-behaved, I am wondering what happened to my little monster child and where this one came from!  Of course now that I am talking about it, I'll probably jinx myself.  We have been through two years of tantrums and defiance, and now we hardly know how to act with this new Justin.  It is wonderful, I'll say that much.  We are able to sit down for more than five minutes at a time, and he actually plays with his toys or sits on the couch.  We are able to do things around the house that don't involve Justin and not find magic marker or food all over the place when we turn back around.  We are able to walk into another room without fear of him opening the side door and running outside.  He brushes his teeth with one of us, and gets his stuffed doggie after his books are read at bedtime without a fight.  He still has lots of energy, which is a good thing and perfectly normal, and he still has his moments as any 3-year-old probably does.  But now when I tell him to stop doing something, he usually listens before I end up yelling.  He has been telling me that he is a big boy and that he's being good now.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much.  His big milestones and behavior changes do seem to happen right after birthdays.  After his first birthday is when the tantrums started, and after his second birthday is when he wanted to start using the potty and started talking in sentences.  By 2 ½ years old, he was ready for underwear and could hold a whole conversation.  So now he has decided to be a nice boy and listen to Mommy and Daddy.  I do hope this lasts.  It is so wonderful to know what it is like to be able to fully enjoy having him around without all the stress.

Challenge update:  Last week I wrote a morning and evening routine.  Well, I actually had them already from when I did the Flylady program, but I rewrote them to make sure I was being realistic in what I could do.  So far it is working out well.  Mornings are still a bit rushed, but that is just the usual having too much to do and not enough time.  There are times I wish I had the nine hours a day that I am here at work to get things done at home, but that is not a reality for me.  I'm not trying to do all that much, just have a little less chaos in the house.  Another thing was setting aside one day to not do anything fun, and just work through things on my to-do list.  This was a good thing for me, particularly at work, because I tend to goof off on the Internet when I should be working.  I was surprised at how much I was able to cross off my list when I did this last Thursday.  I need to start having days like this once or twice a week when I have a lot going on, so things don't get put off and sit on the list for weeks (or months).

Thanks for reading!
Donna and Justin

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