On Being 3

Change is a-brewing in the Barclay household!

On the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, Jeremy converted Noah's crib to a toddler bed.  (I know! Finally.)  I was 100% certain that he would never stay put and that all hope of ever getting another naptime would be dashed.  This is why I have been anxiously dreading it and putting it off as long as possible.  So, down came the pup tent and we uncaged the beast! ;)

And guess what?  He was a perfect angel.  Did not get up even one time.  Went right to sleep without making so much as a peep. Maybe partially due to 3 years of me being mostly consistent with sleep training. Maybe partially due to his new Onaroo OK to Wake alarm. ("The green light's on, Mommy, Daddy!")  If you have a toddler or preschooler, particularly ones who want to wake up at ungodly hours of the morning, you should totally check it out.  Also due to some prayers that I sent up. :)

He was so excited when he saw his "new" bed.  The look on his face was priceless.  It has now occurred to me that he has probably noticed a few other kids who have "big kid" beds and was wondering when he would get his.  Oops.  He has been so proud to show it off to everyone who comes over.  :)

Reading "The Goodnight Train", his most treasured book, is even sweeter in a big boy bed.

Of course, the honeymoon came to an end about 6 days later, when he discovered that not only could he stay awake, he could enjoy the freedom of his bedroom during naptime instead.  (We lock the door from the outside for fear of what might occur in the middle of the night. :) 

And here is what happened:

I have been known to fall asleep a bit while reading too, truth be told.

Then June 1 brought us the last day of school and Noah's last day in the LEIP program for speech, at least for now.  His teacher contacted me the week before school ended to let me know that she wants to move Noah into a more intensive program due to some behavior-related issues.  So in the fall, he will change schools and attend an Early Learning Environment classroom for 4 hours everyday.

Before school ended, I met with Noah's sweet teacher (Mrs. Cathryn or "Miss Caffryn", as Noah so lovingly calls her) and the school's speech pathologist ("Miss Winda", or Linda, heehee).  One of the first questions they asked was whether we have any "quirky" people in our family.  I had to laugh.  And I told them that, honestly, most of Noah's relatives are a bit quirky in one way or another, some more so than others! ;)  They explained that they don't feel Noah meets any criteria for any sort of diagnosis (thank heavens), but that he is just different.  They feel that he is doing well with his language skills and I can tell differences in just the 6 weeks he spent with them.  The main concern is his ability to focus.  He is unable to follow the routine, sit in his spot in circle time, pay attention, follow directions without several prompts, etc.  Thus, being in just a program for language is not effective enough for him.  The teacher reported that he was never able to get the hang of the routine, still isn't good about sharing, and hasn't made any progress on learning to stay put and do what the other kids are doing.  And, really, if you look at his parentage, the poor guy never had a chance with a space cadet mom and a dad notorious for repeating kindergarten, probably because of similar reasons.  So we hope that all this help with early childhood education is going to prevent that and prepare him well for kindergarten two years from now.  They also mentioned how sweet Noah is and how much they enjoyed him!  And he does extremely well with all of these things in a one-on-one setting; it just seems to be the group thing that is throwing him off.  I was very thankful for their insight and taking the time to listen to me and share their feedback.

Funny, the other day I asked Noah what he does in circle time at school, and he pointed and said, loudly, "Sit on your spot, Noah!"

Getting ready to ride the bus to school one last time.

So excited.

Also, I am extremely thankful to report that, since turning 3 and the start of school Noah has only been sick once!  (And it was a really random virus that caused a rash up and down one side of his body for about 6 weeks, but nothing major.  Just weird.  But what is ever normal?)  Excuse me, while I go find something to knock on....He has not had a single fever or antibiotic since the sinus ballooning and adenoid removal in February.  That is an absolute miracle.  I thought surely with him being at school he would miss a lot of days because of all the bugs he would find there, but God protected him and gave a sweet reprieve from all the illness.  We still have the immune issue and I keep having to put off our follow-up appointment with the immunologist, but hopefully I'll be able to give an update on that soon too.  Thank you, Lord.

In other news, we started focusing on potty-training over the weekend, now that school is out of the way.  What a challenge.  Noah knows how to go on the potty and isn't afraid of it at all, I think its the focus problems that are going to be the biggest issue.  Let's just say that I am off to buy more big boy underwear this afternoon.  Lots more.

Our big boy is doing a lot of big boy work lately and we are so proud of him.  Once we get the potty business down, we've got to get his big boy bedroom set up with his actual bed (which I am looking forward to) and we have to work on getting rid of Noah's beloved paci from bedtime (which I am dreading).  Here's to a super successful year of 3 and all its changes and milestones!