Linnaeus 3.7

Playing with a felt board at Collage Collage

The last few months Linnaeus has changed a lot. He's become more active than ever before, to the point that if we don't get out of the house to give him a good run at a playground, he gets totally zoo-ey. He's constant talking, singing, & making sounds all day. The house is never quiet.

His appetite has been on & off in the last few months too. Most days at preschool he hardly eats any lunch & at home it can be hit or miss too. I still wouldn't call him a picky eater & he's expanding his repertoire to include "leaves", finally. Two nights in the past month he ate a little caesar salad.

Linnaeus' counting skills are definitely improving. He can count to about twelve accurately & when he counts how many things there are, he doesn't necessarily need to point at them with his finger.

The other change this month was switching him into a 'big boy bed'. He had been sleeping on his tiny toddler bed--the Ikea Gulliver crib with the front side off. The new Gulliver bed is a bit higher but has the same bed rail & is the same width, so it was a bit of a non-event for him. Now that the crib is free, & we've rearranged all the furniture to accommodate two beds, we can move his sister into the room with him any time. That will probably take some adjusting for all of us when we eventually do it.

Unfortunately, he seems to be over the 'honeymoon' phase with his sister. He's now regularly pushing her to roll her over, squishing toys into her belly & sitting on her. He doesn't really mean to hurt her, he's generally just a little overzealous in his play. It means I have to be a lot more cautious about leaving the room when they're together, however.

The bad behaviour is not restricted to his poor little sibling, sadly. He's been pushing his classmates at preschool & I've found him a lot more defiant in general when I try to get him to stop negative behaviours. I'm really struggling to find a way to get him to stop doing things quickly when it could hurt his sister or break something. Yelling just results in him crying or having a tantrum. I'm really hoping that this is still part of his adjustment to Bronte's arrival, & that the bad behaviour will somehow settle down soon. I really have no idea what the future will hold though--that's parenting, I guess. The goalposts are just constantly moving.

I'll leave you with a video of some three-year-old hijinks with Uncle Mikey:

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