Piya's Perspective

Both kids are growing so quickly…it’s hard to believe Simeon is 3 years old and how much he keeps developing.

Yesterday morning, Ari was kind enough to try to get me out of the house for a workout, but I discovered I didn’t have any workout clothes, so Ari went in my place.  Before I packed up the kids and headed out, I convinced Simeon to do something other than play on the computer.  In doing this I discovered some fun options for Simeon when we fly to Florida later this month.  He loves writing/drawing and loves numbers and letters.  So, for the trip I’m going to print out some connect-the-dot pictures and maybe even some mazes and matching games.  I don’t think he’s quite ready for color-by-number, but we could potentially try that too.

A little bit later, as I was getting ready to leave the house, I bent down to talk to Simeon and felt a pain just above my knee.  When Simeon asked what was wrong, I told him I had an ‘owie’ and he proceeded to give it a kiss.  Quite a few kisses actually.  In the evening, on the way downstairs for his bedtime show, he discovered my knee still hurt.  He made me stop so he could give it another kiss.

His next sympathetic moment was later that day.  We sat and watched Finding Nemo. When Nemo gets taken away Simeon was extremely upset.  His voice was clearly distraught and he was close to tears. He even looked a bit teary-eyed at the end when it Dori and Nemo are in trouble.

Within the last month or two, we have discovered just how important naps are for Simeon.  It wasn’t until my sister-in-law made a comment soon after moving out here that I looked up information about night terrors.  One of the triggers: Fatigue.  Sure enough, if Simeon misses his nap he wakes up crying – about 2-3 hours after going down.  I do my best to wake him up – generally getting him to go to the bathroom.  He’ll ‘wake up’ 2 or 3 times in total before sleeping the rest of the night.

I have started working on convincing Simeon not to crawl into mommy’s and daddy’s bed early in the morning. For the most part the plan has been pretty successful.  Friday morning, I asked him to go back to his room and read books.   He said ok then went back to his room and turned on the light. Then, after cleaning up the 3rd floor playroom on Friday (it’s actually a usable room now!), I moved the playmat with streets and buildings to Simeon’s room along with his cars.  Saturday morning, when Simeon showed up at my bedside, I asked him to play with his toys in his room.  Again, he said ok then went back to his room and turned on the light.  Later, I moved some additional toys into his room.  Sunday morning, he was waking me up at 6:30am then, upon request, returned to his room for an hour before coming back.  Woohoo!

Potty training has been going really well too.  He still has accidents, but the key is to make sure he stops in the bathroom at least before and after car rides.  His teacher told me this morning that he even went to the bathroom without prompting one day last week, and the few days he’s been great about telling me has to to go before pooping.  In fact, now that I think about it, he even told me he needed to go before peeing yesterday. And the big breakthrough?  He was dry when he woke up this morning!!