I can’t quite believe I have a three year old. Doesn’t every parent say that on their child’s birthday though? Just three years ago we were on our way to hospital which would eventually lead to c-section number two for me, but with the support of Adam and my Doula Sophie and the obsetrician team at Basingstoke hospital Felix came into the world angry and purple. When we had him three years ago we didn’t expect to have to parent the way we have especially over the last 18 months of the c19 pandemic which is half his life. It’s a long time for a little person and it’s been really hard not being able to spend as much time with friends and family in his early years as we normally would have. To celebrate we brought our families together for a windy, and slightly, wet day out at the Hawk Conservancy Trust which was really nice. We had a lot of fun watching the birds flying around and spending time together.
Felix has also just moved up a group class at nursery which he started back in June. It’s been tough as he didn’t have a very consistent few months and was constantly having to take time off because of covid restrictions. However, for the last six weeks he’s settled in really well and has been having a great time at nursery. It’s been nice reading about how he’s doing even though its not been every week. One of the things we worried about most was the fact that he hadn’t had the chance to interact with many other children and we wanted to provide a way for him to do that, make friends and have some seperation from us. It’s been really good for all of us I think and has helped create a bit more of a weekly routine.
I have especially noticed a huge jump in his speech over the last month or so where he is saying words, phrases and sentances and having more of a conversation with us. Things like “Oh let me see” “Let me have a try” and “I go in the lift” are just a few that comes to mind. He fills his sentances with a lot of baby jargon and will give his toys voices and characters when playing which is really lovely to watch. He also loves to draw and colour, mostly on Procreate on my iPad but we’ve also got him his own box of colouring pencils and crayons now for him to be artistic. He doesn’t really enjoy certain textures or messy play with his hands so I’m starting to notice some sensory reluctance for him. He seems to love things like kinetic sand and playdoh but does not like sticky/slimy textures. He loves being in the water and his confidence when swimming has really improved. I want to take him much more.
We are thinking as well now he’s three to look at a physical activity he can get involved in regularly like tumble tots, gymnastics or dance classes. I wish I had found something for Evie early on like this as it would have been great for her but co-parenting with someone 100 miles away made it quite difficult with stuff on the weekends as it wouldn’t have been consistent. I don’t have that issue with Felix so it’s something I want to seriously consider looking into over the next month or so and enroll him in before we are allocated extra hours for nusery. My hope is it will give him a little more structure and routine during the week and increase his confidence, expression and find a love of movement.
Anyway, a very happy third birthday to my little man. I’m so thrilled to celebrate you.
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