Sunday March 28th PM

Okay so up from nap after about two hours. So I offered him some lunch and we had a minor meltdown about what he wanted for lunch. He wanted Trix again and I wanted him to have something else. He had a fit and I sat him back on the floor and heated up a bagel with cheese. He came into the living room to tantrum and I followed with the bagel on a plate and his milk. When I looked back in on him he was sitting like a big boy at the table eating lunch like no big deal. I was amused. I brought him a container of applesauce with a spoon and he would not eat it. I showed him how to put his plate away after lunch. My hope is that with some training that he can end his dinner/lunch breaks on his own and I will know he is done eating.

After lunch we got out the stuff to color. So Nathan is not a colorer. But he did enjoy watching me color Elmo, Zoe, and Prairie Dawn. He also knew the first two's names and kinda made up the third. But who names a puppet Prairie Dawn?? I asked him to select colors for me and I had my first thought that he might be red/green color blind like Mike. He kept handing me pink when I asked for red. So time will tell. He did try to master the scissors and they was just almost to much work for him. He did hear the train outside, which he has never heard before since the TV was normally going. i think that being turned off helps him to concentrate. No backgrounds noise and nothing visually to distract. Only had one time today when he went for the remote and I again simply hid it from him. No worries. Anyway when he heard the train he asked what's that. Or at least what I think may have been that question. He did go and get the book we had been reading before lunch back out. Clearly said bed when he saw the bed, said ally for the alligator, eat, phone and flowers. Knew monkey again. He really liked this book which means I will be looking for more books with lift up flaps.

We then heard the girls playing outside, and I realised the weather was around 50 so we got dressed to head out. We had gotten him a cottage last fall on the last good weekend so it had not been outside. Nathan played with it once this year and had been eyeing it from the back door so it was a great day to get wild outside. He played with the cottage solo and I wandered around the yard looking for sticks. I got bored with that and headed inside to get my yard tools and when I cam back he had removed the sandbox cover and was playing in it. I spent the next two hours telling him to stop throwing sand and cleaning up the back patio. He finally got the hang of using the shovel to pour the sand into a pail instead of dumping it on the ground. I had to run him out of the box twice but in the end we found a happy compromise after I finally showed him a few ways to play without all the sand ending up on the ground. Some fun additions to out afternoon was the train which he kept looking for in the front yard, and the planes that kept flying overhead. It was a great day with clear skies and he loved the extra excitement. In the back of our house is a large Rottweiler that our dog kept barking at and getting excited. Nathan saw it and called it a cow and then proceeded to MOOOO at it. I laughed hysterically and was pleased that the education from the day before had stuck. At least he remember that a cow MOOOO'd. There was no fight in coming back in, but I learned another Mommy lesson. 1. Never teach a kid how to lock a door 2. Never put your kid in the house without a spare set of keys in your pocket after you have taught the kid how to do number 1. I got lucky today and remembered Nathan locking himself in the bathroom the same moment he reached to swing the lock closed. Crisis averted. If you remember yesterday I taught him how to let the dog out. And of course I taught him how to lock the door back....BRILLIANT. I did manage to get him and all of stuff back inside without an issue. But I will be smarter next time.

So I was telling my best friend Kristel that Nathan refuses to sit still for a story and she told me that he would develop a longer attention span and I would remember forever the first book he sat through. Well, less than 24 hours later I can already say I am sick of the Spot book because out he drug it again once we got inside. So I invited back into my lap for the third reading of the day. This time he noticed the chair in the book and we had to inspect the chair we have in the living room. He looked at its legs and its back and touched it all over and pointed at the book. It was funny. I know 2 year old funny. Hilarity. This time besides what he had from before he also stuck his tongue out when the dog had his tongue out. I thought for a moment he had lost his mind and then I looked closer. Funny again. So Kristel, you were right. I will never forget that damn book. I may have it bronzed.

So Nathan comes to show me this spot on his hand and I inspect it all over and don't see anything wrong so I ask him if he has a boo-boo, he smiles and I kiss it and tell him it's better. So then he goes and gets the play band aid that came with his Doctor kit and tells me boo-boo and slaps it on his wrist. I had to smile. Some boo-boo. It was adorable.

So I am exhausted from being outside and am almost resigned to some TV watching when he goes and get the shape sorter from earlier and I sit on the couch while he plays with it and put all the shapes in with no problems. Earlier it had been a struggle but with it elevated it was an easier task to accomplish and he did a great job. Great reminder for me to not be a lazy mommy and let the TV be the entertainment. That a properly stimulated kid can entertain themselves. He also drug out his play Doctor stuff and had the above scene and then it turned into him dragging out CARS. That means it was directly from the pixar movies named CARS. Just in case you are wondering why the differentiation. So he drove them all over a box while I cleaned up again. And I started him some dinner. While it cooked I let him throw a soft ball around. He would throw it up and I would catch what I could while I counted 1-10. He has been counting 8,9 lately and no longer doing 1,2. And by lately I mean since yesterday. It was like since we introduced a few new numbers to him that the old ones were no longer cool. So I kept chanting and he kept throwing and we would both laugh when I could catch it. I did try tossing it back to him but he is not that coordinated. Dog tried to get in on the action and Nathan was very good about saying NO DOG. He was also quick to figure out that it was a dog in the book and that was like our dog. I have been having him pet Jasper and I do think they will be better friends. So numbers counted, lunch onto table with applesauce again. This time on the tray instead of from a cup. He ate a bagel bite and ignored the sauce but after a few attempts he actually tried a bite from the offered spoon and from that point on he thought it was great. I guess the cinnamon in it added something. He ate two bowls full and three of the pizza and a gallon on apple juice. ....okay. slight exaggeration. 2 cups worth. We played hard, you know. Even I had some juice. So dinner went good but took forever. I was falling asleep at the kids table and too make it even more painful I kept recounting ten CARS and he kept saying 8,9. Maybe Dad can get that fixed tomorrow. So it was off to bath, with splashing and good times. I put away clothes and then remembered that while I was not worried about him drowning in the bathtub he could still cook himself with the hot water so I decided no more multi tasking at bath time. Bath was fine. Had good fun with bubbles. And the word bubbles, brushed teeth, put on clothes and then I told him about reading a book and he took off for my bedroom and jumping up on the bed. So this is what they call a routine! Spot book read again. this time he did not follow alone as well but I think he was pretty much wiped out. I read another book while he played with his doodle pro but he kept closing my book after a few pages so I asked if he was ready for bed and he took off in that direction. He grabbed a new toy truck while he headed that way and off he went without a peep until I turned off the hall light and from behind his bedroom door, I am sure I heard his little voice say light on! And I left it one. Who wouldn't?