Thursday, June 07, 2007

Happy 3rd Birthday Charley!

Now weighing in at 31 lbs and standing at 38" tall, Charley turns 3 today, June 7, 2007. I can't believe it's been 3 years since starting this great adventure of parenthood. It's been a ride and a treat.

So far, he's growing into a very loving, caring, outgoing and active little boy. He's not potty trained yet, but we're working on it. He's been dealing with a contipation issue for a year and a half now and we have him on a prescription laxative. We're making progress though and hopefully, starting preschool in September will be the turning point after our work this summer.

He takes prodigious care of his brother and his constantly hugging and kissing him saying, "I love my baby brother." It's so cute! We're working on obedience as well. Some days are great, some days are not and as he learns to express himself verbally instead of physically, it gets better. He's not a whiner, but we have had to work on hitting. It's a work in progress like anything and from all of my reading and interviewing, I think it will just take time and loving reinforcement.

A few of his favorite things to do are digging for worms, riding his tricycle, petting the neighborhood stray cat, driving our neighbors' toy Jeep cars, playing with trucks, Bob the Builder toys, and building with quatro and duplo legos.

His favorite foods right now are chicken nuggets, raisins (especially yogurt covered), fruit of just about any kind (he likes to sink his little teeth into apples whole, peel and all), of course chips and chocolate, candy of any sort :). He's out of his noodle phase. he used to love any pasta or noodle soup, but lately he hasn't been interested. He still likes green beans and corn, which is good. Oh yeah, I forgot, peanut butter and honey sandwiches. :) He's also good about eating cereal, meat of almost any kind and bread. He's not a real big mac'n'cheese fan, but maybe that falls in the pasta category that he's left behind recently.

He has excellent motor skills, verbal skills (he'll talk your ear off and you can understand him), and balance. He love to do somersaults, jump on the trampoline and do tricks, jump from just about anything high, like a dresser, bookshelf, or toy chest, to anything else, say like the couch, bed or ground.

He has tons of energy and is up almost every morning at 5:30. Somethings haven't changed from when he was 7 months old. Back then though, he went back down for a nap. He still takes about an hour to an hour and a half nap everyday though, which is nice.

He loves to be read to, to sing and dance to songs, and to recite things. I catch him reciting poems, lines from movies, songs, and lines from books to himself while he's playing with his trucks. It's really cute to watch and listen to what he remembers. In fact, when I'm reading him a book we've read before, he'll correct me if I say a word out of order or miss a word, even an insignificant word like "the". I don't think he knows all his letters yet, although he could be playing games and just not wanting to tell them to me. Will says he knows them. He also can count to around 15. :) What really strikes me about his mind is his ability to observe. When he's in a room, he notices everything, even little things. He never forgets where he's left a toy and even when we think he's wrong, he'll go get it and prove us wrong.

It's been a joy to watch him grow and develop during this changing time in his life and I can only look forward to what the next 3 years will be.

5 comments:

The Peacock Pearl said...

micah had constipation problems since she was first born. it all stopped when we stopped giving her cows milk and started her on goats milk. she can still eat yogurt, frozen yogurt, and cheese but no milk or icecream. if we forget (which we don't anymore) but when we would forget and let her have ice cream, she wouldn't "go" for three days and it was so painful when she did finally go. hope you find a solution.

Lady Cayt said...

Thanks. Sounds like you guys have been at this a long time. I'm glad you figured out exactly which foods she could have and not.

Charley's problems started just after we moved to RI. He was about 16 mo. old. We took him off of all dairy for awhile and that didn't help, so now the DR. thinks that he was just with holding because he was getting to the age where he could feel that he needed to go. I also happened to feed him too much of a few fruits and that messed up his bowls. Those bad experiences combined with his age are what I'm guessing created a bigger problem, kind of a domino effect.

We tried soy milk, but not goats yet. Maybe we should give it a try. I hope we can get off of this laxative soon. I don't like having my kids on meds this much.

The Peacock Pearl said...

yeah the laxitives end up doing more harm than good because the body can become dependent on them. before we figured out the problem, our pediatrician had micah taking glucose (if i'm remembering correctly) it wasn't habit forming and it helped her to go.

The Peacock Pearl said...

oh i just remembered, you can also try giving him some probiotics (help increase the good bacteria and fight off the bad bacteria that can cause constipation in anyone) or any kind of good bateria like acidopholis, there are others too that i don't know the names of, but ask the person at a health food store, they can point you at some good stuff. and if your giving him yogurt with any kind of sugar, it discounts the bacteria's workability, so give him plain yogurt and add honey if he needs the sweet taste. OR just go get a copy of the "Great Physicians Rx" by Jordan Rubin. :) i'll stop now!

Lady Cayt said...

Great ideas, thanks! I'll talk to the doctor about them for his 3 yr. check-up next week. Part of our problem is we're not sure of the cause. I think trying different non-prescription options is better though, like you said. I hope it's not too late.