31 months old. Just five more months before our baby turns three. I’ve been looking through his baby photos recently, and although his face hasn’t changed that much, he has grown quite a bit.
One of the biggest changes is that he talks a lot now. I honestly can’t remember when he started talking more, and can barely remember the days when his sole method of communication was signing “milk”, “please”, and “thank you”. His favourite number at the moment is four, and he answers every question that requires a numerical answer with ‘Four!”.
Me: How many friends do you have in school?
N: Four!
Me: How many biscuits/strawberries/fishballs/mushrooms do you want?
N: Four!
The most frustrating thing is that although he says “four”, he actually means more than that. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t know how to count yet, and even if we give him four of whatever he has asked for, he goes, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…” until we stop him and tell him that there’s only four in the bowl. He then gobbles the food up, and asks for more, even though he requested for only four before that.
Eating four strawberries
Noah fell quite sick this month, and was out of school for a while. He became extra clingy, and would only nap if he could sleep on our bed, and only if I were on the bed with him too. He snuggled up to me, often with an arm across my chest, to prevent me from leaving. On two afternoons, he insisted on stuffing his toy tiger under his shirt for his nap, and slept like that. It was one of the weirdest things he has ever done, but it was easier to just let him do that, than to argue with him, and all I wanted was for him to nap, so I let him be.
Napping with mummy
Napping with his toy tiger stuffed under his shirt
He was also extra cranky, and threw a tantrum just before we were about to head out one afternoon. He wanted to be carried, but I refused to pick him up, so he lay on the floor in an awkward position. It was a real test of my patience, and I had to pick him up in the end, because he realised that he was stuck in that position, and couldn’t get up, even though he wanted to.
Throwing a tantrum
The most significant difference between this month and the last, is that Noah finally decided to stop crying in school. I blogged about this milestone recently, so I won’t repeat myself here. I’ve also noticed that he has been eating more, and a wider variety of items as well. He loves donuts, cupcakes, strawberries, fishballs, mushrooms, and eggs, so I try to ensure that he gets to eat them frequently. He used to be really fussy, and the only vegetable he would eat was broccoli, but these days, he eats green leafy vegetables, as long as I cut them up into smaller pieces.
Donut monster
Duplo and Playdoh are two of Noah’s favourite toys at the moment, and I love that he is becoming more creative when he plays with his Duplo. He builds all sorts of cars, and I’m glad that he no longer needs me to help him with them. He bugs me frequently to let him play with his Playdoh, although his version of playing with it is just tearing the Playdoh into little bits, and creating a huge mess. I know that it’s good for his fine motor skills, but I can’t stand the cleaning up, and often ask him to play with something else instead. I think I should really try to encourage him to go with his interest in Playdoh, rather than worry about the mess, so that’s something I have to work on.
Duplo lover
Playing with Playdoh
C has also been trying to teach Noah how to play hockey, and he seems to really enjoy it! He runs outside happily with his hockey stick, and can play hockey with C for quite some time. We’re still trying to get him to stop the ball before hitting it, but he stubbornly insists on hitting the ball once it gets to him.
Playing hockey
We brought Noah to decorate a cake for my dad’s birthday, and he had a lot of fun playing with the piping bags. The cake was a complete mess, of course, but he was really proud of it, and no one really minded that the cake wasn’t pretty.
Decorating the cake
“I did it!”
The final product
With Grandpa
Noah loves “drawing”, which is actually just random scribbles on sheets of paper, but he is super proud of himself each time he presents us with his “drawings”. He asks his teacher for extra paper in school, and draws pictures for us quite regularly. I guess it’s kinda sweet that he’s thinking of us while he’s in school! He’s a real sweetheart when he wants to be, and noticed immediately when I picked him up from school one day, after my pedicure. He was fascinated by my “nice toes”, and touched them carefully, before declaring that they were “so nice” and “very beautiful”.
Examining my newly painted toenails
Whenever he knows that he has done something wrong, Noah will first try to worm his way out of getting punished by smiling widely at me, and asking, “Are you happy, Mummy?” When I scold him, and ask him why he was naughty, his answer would always be “Because.” I think he hasn’t quite figured out that he needs to actually give me a reason, rather than just say “because”, and it makes me so mad sometimes!
Noah is constantly testing his boundaries, and we have been putting him in time-out quite frequently. It might seem harsh to punish him for small things, but we want him to learn how to be obedient, and to follow instructions properly. Many times, it seems as though he is being defiant, and only scrambles to obey when we bring him to the corner for a time-out. I really pray that he will outgrow this phase soon!
Happy 31st month, sweetheart. We love you so very much, even though you make us so angry sometimes. We discipline you because we love you, and we hope you know that. Please try to be a good boy, okay?
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