Nathan - 3 year summary

I know it's cliché, but I can't believe Nathan is already 3 years old!! Despite this disbelief, it also seems so hard to remember life before he was here. I was just talking to Mom the other day and saying how I do remember it being difficult to adjust to having a baby - Peter and I were married for almost 6 years before he came along and we were very used to being out all the time. Once that period of adjustment was over, though, it seemed like he had always been part of our family and I know neither of us would have it any other way.

Since birth Nathan has been a very laid-back kid. In general, he adapts well to change and that has been a great quality this past year! I always say that he is introverted like me and laid back like Peter. I'm sure that's an oversimplified summary of his personality, but it seems pretty accurate most of the time.

The biggest change in Nathan over the past year has been in his speech. He was slow to start - hardly speaking before his second birthday - but has quickly caught up. He speaks clearly in complete sentences and seems to have an unlimited vocabulary. He picks up new words and phrases all the time - it's amazing! He speaks so that others can understand him most of the time, although a few words, like 'helicopter' and 'umbrella' still give him trouble.

Nathan loves to look at books and to be read to. I think he would sit all day and be read to if someone would read to him for that long.

Nathan is generally very sensitive. Things will stick in his mind and he will get scared. As a result we are very careful what we say and what we let him watch. In January he somehow fixated on pigs and had nightmares about them and was scared to go to sleep for weeks. He still talks about the pigs and how he was scared of them during that time. He is also very affected by the moods of the people around him. I think this is something he gets from me ...

In the past few months Nathan has begun a workbook on tracing. It has really helped his fine motor control and will hopefully prepare him for printing. His absolute favourite 'crafty' thing to do right now is play with stickers. He loves them ... I can't even put into words how much he loves to take stickers off the page and stick them on another page. The funny thing is he sticks them all one on top of the other! No matter how many times we show him differently he still does it that way. Oh well.

Nathan is just about potty trained as far as using the toilet goes. He is not yet able to pull his pants down or up independently, or to get on or off the toilet by himself. He will sometimes tell us if he has to go to the washroom, but often we have to take him at regular intervals. We have just started night training and so far so good (4 for 4 dry nights). Potty training was really much less of an issue than I thought it would be, although perhaps starting late helped it go more smoothly. I am sure there are many accidents in our future, but I hope the majority of them are behind us.

Nathan is obviously eating table foods. This summer he has just started trying salad vegetables such as spinach and lettuce. I hope that by involving him in our vegetable garden he will be more open to eating more vegetables. He is not a bad eater, but he is still more picky than he was at a year. In our household, however, the kids eat what we eat, and since I love to try new recipes, he is constantly exposed to a wide variety of foods.

People talk about the terrible twos, and I didn't really see them until about 2 months before Nathan's 3rd birthday. In fact, I'm thinking we might be dealing with the terrible threes instead. Nathan really seems to be testing his boundaries, especially when it comes to how he relates to other children. He often pushes Hannah or takes toys from her, and tries to do the same when playing with kids from other families. It is so tiring to referee this all the time and very frustrating, since when I ask him what he was doing wrong he can describe it to me perfectly! I keep hoping that if we are consistent with his discipline that he will eventually stop these behaviours.

I never tire of Nathan's hugs or his need to 'cuddle' on the couch. I very much wonder if physical touch isn't his primary love language. He has always been cuddly and when he plays with other kids he always wants to be very close to them ... something we are working on. Something to watch for as he grows ...

Nathan has grown up so much in the last year - I can't imagine what he will be like by the time 4 rolls around!