So when we first got there, Nathan had a blast in the waiting room. It was very kid-friendly and he loved running around & playing with the other kids. When we were called back, he melted down. I enticed him to come with me by telling him there were toys back there for him to play with.

It worked.

So we get back to to the room and Nathan’s eyes widened with excitement. There was a large mat on the floor and quite a few toys throughout the room. He immediately made a beeline to a large purple truck that was sitting enticingly on the floor.

There were three therapists in the room. One was an actual employee who I’ll call Alice, one was a student who I’ll call Jess, and one, who I’ll call Mary, had an appointment cancel so she asked if she could sit in on this one. I assumed she was a student as well.

Alice, the employee, was super awesome. She was kind and very sweet. Mary, the student therapist whose appointment cancelled, was super sweet as well. She didn’t say anything the whole time, so I think she was just observing. But the other student therapist, Jess, was a whole other story.

She was the stereotypical sorority snob that we all despised in high school & college. I could tell by the way she looked at me that she thought she was better than most people, including myself. She kept interrupting me & was condescending. Gag.

Jess made it clear she didn’t like my kid from the start. In fact, she completely exuded disdain for him. She made it painfully clear that she didn’t like his strong-willed nature. For example, she told him to sit in a seat by the mat so he could use a buckle. Nathan, like all strong-willed children on the Earth, does not take well to being ordered around. So naturally, he balked at her command and told her no. Jess huffed a few times and told him to sit down again. He ignored her. She then commanded him to sit. He ignored her and ran to the other side of the room to play with more toys. I don’t blame him. He’s not some pet.

Alice, the employed therapist, asked Nathan if he would like to sit at the table instead and play with crayons & markers. He smiled, said okay, and happily ambled over to the table and plopped down. Jess sat down beside Nathan and proceeded to give him instructions on doing this or that. After a while, Nathan became bored, so he rose from the table & started playing with the truck again.

“No, Nathan,” Jess said as she exasperatedly banged her pen on the table. “Sit down so we can finish.”

“No,” Nathan replied matter-of-fact.

“Yes. You have to finish your work,” she retorted.

“No,” Nathan repeated in that sweet three-year-old voice. Sometimes its funny to observe him being assertive because he has that sweet, soft little voice. I chuckled a little on the inside.

“Sit down,” she said as she patted the empty seat beside her.

“No.”

“You can’t play with the truck until you finish your work.”

“No. No sit in the chair. No truck.” When Nathan said that, Jess breathed out forcefully.

“Please sit in the chair or no truck.”

“No chair! No truck! No! No no no no!” Nathan asserted as he furrowed his eyebrows and took few steps back. He didn’t like her. In his own way, he was standing up for himself and giving her a big F You. He figured he’d just go without the truck instead of complying. No sweat off his back & a big fail on her part.

“Do you need me to step in?” I asked with a smile. It was almost funny. She was never going to get Nathan to comply by talking to him that way. You have to give Nathan an incentive; what’s in it for him. You have to convince him it’s something he wants to do, as opposed to barking orders to him. Strong-willed children require adults to think outside the box.

“No,” she said. “I’m just trying to see how well he follows directions.” Before I could tell her she was going about it the wrong way, Alice chimed in.

“Hey, Nathan! If you sit in your chair and do these fun activities, you can play with the truck when you’re done! How’s that sound?” Alice said cheerfully.

“Okay! Great!” Nathan said as he bounded over to the table and sat back down. I think Jess needs to find another occupation. She obviously isn’t cut out for dealing with children.

When the evaluation was over, Nathan cried. He said he wanted to “go play, have fun” and had an atomic meltdown in the parking lot as I tried to get him inside the car. He liked the activities & the play, regardless of Miss Sourpuss trying to rain on his little parade.

When I take Nathan back for his physical therapy, I hope that Jess isn’t there. I’m seriously considering having her sit out our sessions if she is there because she isn’t any good with my child at all. I do NOT appreciate a “professional” treating my child without kindness. I can’t help but wonder how she treats other children who actually have serious disabilities… just, wow.

I don’t see how hoarders can do it. I would go crazy!

So anyway, I’ve been taking Nathan to the park to enjoy the lovely weather, and (of course) he has a blast. He’s growing into such a little boy. We’ve been working diligently with him on speaking in complete sentences. The kid has a steel-trap memory, so he’s memorized the basic sentence we taught him which is “Mommy, may I have some more Dino Dan please?” What’s really cool is that he uses that sentence for other questions. He just switches some words out. For example, he’ll now say “Mommy, may I have some more grapes please?” It’s incredibly awesome to hear the little baby you gave birth to talking to you in a complete sentence.

He’s also really advancing in the potty-training area. He tells me when he wants a diaper change, which is great. And he also tells me when he has to go potty. But I have to be quick… I have about ten seconds to get him to his potty before he pees in his diaper.

Nathan is also flapping his little Wings of Independence. He does NOT take too kindly to being told what to do. For example, I can expect a meltdown if I just grab his hands and start wiping them when he’s done eating. But if I ask him if I may wipe his hands, he’ll say okay. Other times, if he balks at the notion, I offer to let him do it himself. Sometimes it takes a while for me to convince him to let me do something, but I’ve noticed that if I just keep asking in different ways (“May I wipe your hands please? … Will you let Mommy wipe your hands for you? … Will you wipe your hands for Mommy please?”), eventually he’ll give in and let me.

He has such strong willpower! Last night, it took me nearly five minutes to convince him to let me brush his teeth. And I bet someone out there is thinking “Forget that! I’d just MAKE him brush his teeth!” Well, that doesn’t work with my kid. Sure, I could force my will on him, but it only leads to a meltdown and will put us both in an angry mood. I think avoiding those types of strong confrontations are important when you have a spirited child. Granted, there are times when you must be confrontational, but I think it should be saved for the Really Big Things.

We’ve had to drastically cut down on naps. Remember how we were having a bear of a time getting him to stay in bed at night? Well, he would go a few days doing pretty well- but then, inevitably, he would relapse. It was driving us crazy. Well, we had one more trick up our sleeves; we cut down on his naps. So now he doesn’t nap every day anymore. He’ll still nap if he really needs one, but here lately, I’ve just been keeping him up. And at night, he falls right asleep. Go figure.

He’s also becoming sweeter and sweeter. He is constantly seeking hugs and kisses. And he loves nothing more than to sit in Mommy and Daddy’s lap, cuddling with us. I love how lovable he is! And I’m taking full advantage of it because he won’t want us to love on him forever. Before you know it, he’ll be grown. And I won’t be able to nibble on those little arms anymore.

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful child. Granted, he can definitely be difficult and trying when he wants to be, but his sweet side more than makes up for it!

Racing! I can’t help but smile every time I look at this picture. He’s just so adorable with his curly hair and legs that don’t reach the pedals. It won’t be long before he can play this for real without having to sit in his daddy’s lap. (Before I took the picture, he sat in Paul’s lap to race because Paul’s legs reach the pedals. When they were done, Nathan was content to sit in the seat and pretend like he was still racing.)

Take last night, for example. Part of his bedtime routine includes me singing to him before we say our prayers. When I finished singing, I started reciting The Lord’s Prayer (which he loves… When I’m reciting it, I’ll pause and Nathan will say the next word) when all of a sudden, Nathan started flapping around in my lap like some sort of fish being electrocuted.

“What’s wrong, Nathan?” I asked, perplexed.

“I MAD AT YOU!” he replied. Wow. He’s never articulated his feelings to me before.

“Ok. Are you mad at me because you wanted more songs?”

“Yes,” he said sullenly.

“I understand. I really do. You’re allowed to be mad at me all you want, but throwing a tantrum when you’re mad is unacceptable. We’re done singing. Now it’s time to pray and then bed. Are you now ready to say our prayers so you can go night night?”

“Okay. Yes,” he whispered.

And that’s not the only new development. Yesterday, my mom took us to look for Christmas gifts. We didn’t get home until around 3:30 or so. I anticipated taking Nathan directly to bed to nap but needed to change his diaper first. Nathan balked at the prospect and started saying “NO! Go pee pee in the potty!” I replied that it was nap time and we could try when he got up. When I went to change his diaper, I was surprised to discover his diaper was completely dry. So I ushered him into the bathroom, sat him on his potty, and LO-AND-BEHOLD he peed!!

That was the first time he’d ever told me he needed to go potty… and then actually went! He was so proud of himself that he jumped up from the potty and did a little dance. And I was right there dancing with him!

He’s also starting to really take off with his reading. He has most of his books memorized, so oftentimes I’ll have him “read” to me. The other night, he sat in my lap and read The Little Red Caboose to me. Paul peeked through the door and watched us as Nathan relayed the adventures to me. As he was watching, he noticed that when Nathan hesitated, his eyes would scan the page looking for a cue. Although technically Nathan doesn’t know how to read yet, he recognizes a lot of words, but that was the first time Nathan’s ever scanned a page to remember what word or sentence comes next.

My mom said I was the same way. I also started recognizing words and “reading” to my parents when I was really little. The funny thing is that I remember it (I don’t remember my age at the time, but Mom told me I was almost three). I remember my parents being so shocked and proud of me for reading… but I felt incredibly guilty because I knew I wasn’t actually reading. I didn’t know how. I just recognized a ton of words.

Of course, in retrospect, I see that recognizing words is one of the first steps to learning how to read. Nathan has an incredible memory, so I’m not surprised that he’s memorized a lot of words and knows what the word looks like when spelled. I’m super excited to nourish his love for reading so can hopefully continue to love books through adulthood.

My baby is growing up. And it’s happening alarmingly fast.

Nathan’s mood varies in the mornings. Most times he wakes up all jolly and full of rainbows and lolly pops. Other times, he wakes up grumpy and irritable. Full of “piss and vinegar” as the saying goes. He’s hard to deal with on those days, and it usually takes quite a bit of playing and bribing with books to get him into a better mood. In the picture above, he’d had a great morning. (Fortunately he has those more often than not.) Look at his morning hair! I was sitting on the ground when I took it, so the picture looks like he’s a giant in a tiny little room.

And see the mess behind him? Well, every night before he goes to bed, we clean up his room. And the first thing he does in the morning is drag his toys back out to play. I’ve really been working with him on cleaning up after himself. He and I always clean his room before he goes down for his nap. I set out some baskets, and we sort the toys. Legos here, cars there, blocks in that one, books in this one. Most of the time, he gets distracted and wants to play with the toys we are cleaning up, but I tell him we clean up first and THEN he can play with his toys again. This seems to work well. Just yesterday, he brought a basket filled with over 50 Hot Wheels and dumped most of them onto the coffee table. He played with them for a while, and when he was done –get this– he put them all back into the basket and carried it to his room!

Good work, son.

I know I say this a lot, but I have to say it again. I can’t believe how quickly he’s growing up.

Every so often, however, I really look forward to a nap. (How lucky am I that I still have the opportunity to nap? VERY.)

Today I wanted to get some rest. Nathan’s agenda for today, on the other hand, did not include sleeping. I laid with him for over an hour as he played with his hands and the blanket. When I finally told him to go to sleep or I would put him in his own bed, he pouted and pulled the covers up over his face. I laid there and watched him for over five minutes. He laid perfectly still, and the only reason I knew he was not asleep was because his breathing wasn’t deep and regular.

Pretending to be asleep for over five minutes is an ETERNITY in toddler time. I had to give him credit. He tried damn hard to make me think he was asleep. He didn’t twitch, didn’t talk, and he didn’t move at all. He was perfectly still.

I know adults that aren’t capable of pulling that off.

So finally, as I watched him, he slowly reached his hand up to the blanket that he had pulled over his face. His fingers carefully grasped the edge of the blanket and ever so slowly, he pulled the blanket down, exposing his wide-awake eyes.

“HI MOMMY!” he exclaimed when he saw me watching him. There was not one ounce of sleepiness in his voice.

“Go to sleep,” I responded. “Mommy’s tired but I can’t sleep unless you sleep.”

“No nap, Mommy. I sorry. Mommy TIRED. No nap. Get up?” he said as he sat up in one swift motion.

“No not yet,” I said as I pondered how it could be humanly possible for someone to sit up with such speed. “Seriously, I’m tired.” Then he plopped back down beside me and nestled his arm under my chin. I couldn’t help but kiss it.

“Get up? Ready get up?” he implored.

Fine. How could I say no? The kid laid as still as a statue for OVER FIVE MINUTES.

“Okay we’ll get up,” I sighed. Before I could finish that short sentence, however, Nathan was clamoring out of the bed and racing into his room. “BUT!” I called. “Since you didn’t nap, you’re going to have to play in your room for a while rather than roaming the house. Understand?”

“Okay, Mommy!” he said as he dove into his toys.

My baby boy is growing up and naps are starting to become more scarce. I don’t think he’s going to give them up entirely just yet because there have been plenty of times where he’s been so tired that he could hardly hold his eyes open. But it’s definitely heading in that direction. Hopefully, he still has a year or two of napping, even if it is sporadic. I can get so much done when he’s sleeping… not to mention, some time to myself is always nice.

Just another reminder that they don’t stay little for long…

He’s such a good sport and playfully let me take pictures of him with a pair of sunglasses on. This kid is such a ham… he loves the camera, loves having his picture taken, and insists on looking at the pictures when we’re done.  Sometimes he’ll even approach me first, asking “Pictures? Please?” in an attempt to get me to break out the camera and take some pictures. We are truly blessed to have such an awesome little boy with such a big personality!

In other news, he said the cutest thing to me yesterday. I had laid him down in my bed for his nap, and he was wiggling around, fidgeting, and trying to sit up. I realized I had to get up to get something, so I laid him back down, and I told him to lay right there and don’t get up. When I came back, he was beaming from ear-to-ear.

“I mind you! I mind you!” he exclaimed happily.

I leaned over and kissed his sweet forehead. And I couldn’t help but grin at the notion that my child gets excited when he minds me.

Nathan is already wanting to drive Daddy’s car. I tell him to slow his roll… he’s still got 14 more years to go! At the age of two, he already loves fast cars and fighter jets. Because of this, I am not exactly eagerly awaiting the arrival of his teenage years…