Daycare gave us homework. By "us" I mean me and John, but it was me who did it. I had to decorate a paper doll to represent Preston and answer a few questions about him, like what makes me proud, laugh, etc. I cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines (I KNEW there was a reason I saved those - against John's better judgement) of things that Preston loves, and then made a collage of them to put on the paper doll. Can you guess the types of things I cut out? You got it: Tick-tocks, dogs, ducks, bananas, snacks, etc. It was fun to find things that remind me of him. Of course, my obsessive self took FOREVER to find the perfect pictures for his facial features, and I got worried when I forgot to include Cherrios! He's practically obsessed with them. Have no fear, I found a good way to incorporate them *wink.* Here's a picture of my final project!
Having never experienced a toddler on a day-to-day basis before, I get really excited when Preston starts to do something new. I'm not even sure what toddlers his age should be doing (developmentally), but he nevers ceases to amaze and inspire me. Lately he has been using my hands (or any other adults) to experience things in different ways. If he can't get something to work he will grab my hand and literally show me what to do with my hands to accomplish whatever it was he was trying to do. This is something I didn't know toddlers did. It's seems like it is his creative way of getting something done when he can't do it himself. He'll do it for just about everything, too. I think he helps to alleviate some of his frustrations, although he still throws his fair share of toddler tantrums!
We are experiencing some separation anxiety right now, too. It comes and goes, but some days it is hard for me to leave him at daycare because he clings to me and cries when I leave the room. It’s been ok lately, but I’m not sure we are totally out of that phase yet.
He is really fine tuning his motor skills. I’ll see him trying to put a small stick in the tiny hole in the door knob an actually accomplish it! Crazy! And he loves to “fix” things with his tools. He’s also started to actually ride on his trucks and make the sounds to go with them.
I’ve estimated that he has spoken somewhere between 20-30 meaningful words. Some he uses all the time, so he used for a week and hasn’t really said since. But I’m proud of him for picking up on words and honing his communication skills. I should also mention that many of his words are food related, and he has no problem saying cheese, juice, cheerios, fish, goldfish, cracker, and banana. But he has yet to call me “Mama” to my face. I guess we know where his priorities are!
One of the more frustrating things for me right now is bedtime. Thankfully he has been consistently sleeping through the night (10-12 hours) for a few weeks now, but I still have issues getting him to go to sleep. Almost every night he cries himself to sleep, although he is asleep in under 5 minutes. I hate to leave him, but I haven’t found any other way. If I stay with him and try to rock him to sleep he fidgets forever because he can’t get comfortable. If I put him in his crib and pat or sing to him he keeps standing up and trying to play with me, even though I can tell he is super sleepy. I worry that he is going to get my terrible sleep habits and have insomnia when he is older. I’m going to talk to the pediatrician about it. We have an unwavering bedtime routine; he just doesn’t take the cue. It might also be me. John can sometimes get him to calmly go to bed, and when we have a sitter she can often get him to sleep without crying. It’s struggle, but I’ll keep searching for a solution.