Parkers Update

It is all fun and games until you get a 3 year old!!! (at least in our house)

Parker is rather difficult to deal with lately.

He has a hard time making his mind up.  I try and give him choices like:  do you want mommy or daddy to help, do you want to go potty up stairs or down, do you want a pink bowl or a green one.  Most of the time it ends in him screaming at me because he keeps changing his mind and I usually just go with the one he said second (in other words I allow him one change of mind).

He is also asks for help with everything.  Much of this is my fault.  I've encouraged him to ask for help, but then it got to a point where he wouldn't even try or would try very little and then ask for help.  In the end I would just do it for him. Up until recently I was fully dressing him, and helping him with everything when he went potty.  The other day he dressed himself and this is what we got

I couldn't have been more proud since he dressed himself.

One thing I know he can do is put on socks, but he often refuses to do it, and he hates to wear his sandals so if he doesn't do it himself I either just put on his sandals or he goes out without shoes which can be seer torture for him if I go for a run and then don't let him get out to play at the park.

One thing I'm not proud of with him is his TV time.  I feel like I've let him watch way too much so I'm now on a quest to cut back.  The first thing he asks for in the morning is a movie, and he will pick a movie over any other activity.  I've spent way too much time and money looking for quality games, toys and puzzles at the thrift store to let them go to waist so my new goal with him is 1 movie a day.  I'm hoping it will help with some of his behavior issues. I will be forced to be more involved with him and maybe these outburst are his way of telling me he wants more interaction.

Parker is REALLY mean to Max at times, but I think it is because he doesn't know how to play with him, so my next goal with him is showing him how to play with Max. I'm sure it is confusing for Parker to see Mommy and Daddy throwing Max in the air and then not being able to do that with him too.

Parker is REALLY AWESOME with shapes. I haven't figures out if it is fluke or not, but he usually correctly identifies octagons, pentagons, and hexagons along with the other more common shapes.  I'm sure that was something I didn't figure out until much later in life.  He is still struggling with numbers and letters, but I've seen a lot of progress with numbers in the last few days he even tries to count it usually goes 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 6 (who needs 4 & 5 right?). We sing the alphabet song every time he washes his hands, but it hasn't show to be helping yet (however I'm hoping it is).  His colors are coming along. I think he can identify them such that if I say get the red block he can do it, but he struggles more if I say what color is this?

Parker is MOSTLY potty trained during the day.  I still has a few #2 accidents, but he has been doing really good, and after many tears he will now do most of it by himself.  He still like me to come in with him, but now he can do most everything by himself. I figured tackling night training would go better if I first got him going by himself during the day.  I'm determined not to buy any more diapers for him, and we still have enough for one a day for the next 3-4 months so at that time we'll him the night time training hard.

It will be interesting  to me over the next few months to see how things with him change.