Dylan at Grandma Mimi's house at the end of our tripThis is a fun - if frustrating - age. Dylan is old enough to have a strong opinion but not mature enough to be reasoned with or properly disciplined. He refuses to sleep in his own bed (though that will change this weekend when we go through another round of the dreaded Cry It Out - sigh) and lately is refusing to eat. If he could live on yogurt, that'd be fine for him. I'm trying not to pressure him because I know they go through these phases and I know that at his age, it's a "control" issue, but I stress myself out trying to prepare these fabulous, well-balanced toddler meals only to watch him spit everything out. He's gotten really thin and lanky - he's about 34 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds, which puts him in the 50th to 75th percentile in terms of height but only the 25th to 50th percentile in terms of weight.
He's given to frequent tantrums when he doesn't get his way or when it is time to leave the park, eat, change his diaper or get dressed. The good thing is that he's very verbal and can often tell you what is bothering him. This past week when we were both sick with bronchitis, one day he was coughing a lot and just turned to me with such a look of suffering and said, "Mommy, medicine." I had been avoiding giving him cough syrup but obviously he felt he needed some!
His Italian has improved by leaps and bounds just since we've been back and he can sing entire songs from playgroup all by himself. I now realize that just hearing English from me and educational DVDs is not going to be enough. I need to seek out an English-speaking playgroup or find him some English-speaking friends. Lately, he speaks to me mainly in Italian even when I address him in English.
Since it's barely mid-September and the three of us have already been sick and seeing as though it's rainy and cold today (requiring me to hang my first laundry load of the season in the house!), I'm really dreading this coming winter. Our 900 square feet of apartment may as well be a cage. That's what he's like in here - a caged animal. Last year I felt really cozy here with the three of us but Dylan now is so active and requires much more space. If I don't let him "out" to run wild in the park at least twice a day, he gets all cranky and then has trouble sleeping at night. What in the world am I going to do in the dead of winter?
We are considering sending him to preschool for at least half a day when he turns two in January. There's a preschool in our town that I've heard nice things about. I talked to some of the mothers at the park yesterday and they said their kids are much more independent, mature and better socialized since starting this preschool. We've been lucky in that Cristiano's mom and aunt have been able to keep him, but I think it is time for him to have a more structured and disciplined environment.
If we stay in Italy and don't move to the U.S. next year (that's still up in the air...), he would start preschool in the fall of 2010 anyway as it is a common rite-of-passage for the majority of Italian three-year-olds (though Dylan would go early as he turns three in the middle of the school year).
He's given to frequent tantrums when he doesn't get his way or when it is time to leave the park, eat, change his diaper or get dressed. The good thing is that he's very verbal and can often tell you what is bothering him. This past week when we were both sick with bronchitis, one day he was coughing a lot and just turned to me with such a look of suffering and said, "Mommy, medicine." I had been avoiding giving him cough syrup but obviously he felt he needed some!
His Italian has improved by leaps and bounds just since we've been back and he can sing entire songs from playgroup all by himself. I now realize that just hearing English from me and educational DVDs is not going to be enough. I need to seek out an English-speaking playgroup or find him some English-speaking friends. Lately, he speaks to me mainly in Italian even when I address him in English.
Since it's barely mid-September and the three of us have already been sick and seeing as though it's rainy and cold today (requiring me to hang my first laundry load of the season in the house!), I'm really dreading this coming winter. Our 900 square feet of apartment may as well be a cage. That's what he's like in here - a caged animal. Last year I felt really cozy here with the three of us but Dylan now is so active and requires much more space. If I don't let him "out" to run wild in the park at least twice a day, he gets all cranky and then has trouble sleeping at night. What in the world am I going to do in the dead of winter?
We are considering sending him to preschool for at least half a day when he turns two in January. There's a preschool in our town that I've heard nice things about. I talked to some of the mothers at the park yesterday and they said their kids are much more independent, mature and better socialized since starting this preschool. We've been lucky in that Cristiano's mom and aunt have been able to keep him, but I think it is time for him to have a more structured and disciplined environment.
If we stay in Italy and don't move to the U.S. next year (that's still up in the air...), he would start preschool in the fall of 2010 anyway as it is a common rite-of-passage for the majority of Italian three-year-olds (though Dylan would go early as he turns three in the middle of the school year).
2 comments:
Il Dylan is so cute! That's was adorable that he asked for his medicine! When did he start to become verbal? E isn't saying too many words yet, but she clearly understands things in both languages which I think is a good sign.
Hilary,
He started talking early, like by 9 months (saying only "mamma," of course) and he shocks us with how much he talks now. Last night as we were reading one of his bedtime stories, he was saying the next word before I even got there. Granted, his pronunciation is not perfect and we understand him really well because we are his parents. When we were in the U.S. my mom watched him one day and couldn't understand that he was asking for yogurt. He says something like "gonurt." He also calls cars "manche" in Italian and things like that. But for the most part, he talks a lot and quite well for his age. Now if we could just get him to sleep in his own bed and start eating again...
Post a Comment