If anyone watches Blue’s Clue’s with their children, you know that in every episode, there is a part where Joe (or Steve) “skidoos” into a book while singing “Blue skidoo, we can too!” and then they kinda swirl around and then jump into a book. Its really corny, but Nathan loves it. He loves it so much, in fact, that he tries to skidoo as well.
The other day, he brought one of his favorite books out into the living room, opened it, and then ceremoniously placed it on the floor. Then he stood up, excitement painted all over his little face. Then he pointed to the book and sang “Blue Skidoo, we can too!” Then he swirled around and jumped onto the book. After a moment of standing on the pages, he looked at me and said, “It’s not working! Let’s try again!”
Rinse and repeat.
He attemped to skidoo multiple times and after each failure, he issued the same exclamation about it not working and trying again. One thing’s for sure, this kid had perseverence. And he’s so dang cute when he’s doing it.
In other news, Nathan had his three-year check-up at the doctor’s yesterday. I tried to schedule it around the time he turned three, but the office said it was sick season and that they wouldn’t be doing well-checks for a few months. So anyway. It was quite an experience. He did great right up until they called his name to go back… he fought me and did the Limp Body. You know, where a kid goes completely limp like a cooked spaghetti noodle, making it hard for you to pick them up and carry them because they just slide out of your arms.
He screamed bloody murder as they tried to take his temperature. He fought standing on the scale, and it was like pulling teeth to get him to stand up straight so they could get his height. He measured 40 inches tall, but he kept slumping over, so I think he’s more like 41 inches. He weighs 39 pounds. That puts him in the 95th percentile for both weight and height. He’s going to be so tall, just like his daddy! Paul is about 6’5 (6’6 with his shoes on!) And I’m a hair from being 5’8 (barefoot). So the kid has some tall genes, which is awesome.
Next, the nurse tried to get his blood pressure. Nathan totally rebelled, complete with thrashing and howling. When she told him the blood pressure cuff was just giving his arm a hug, he calmed down enough to get a reading. Whew. By this time, he was covered in sweat from fighting so hard.
Next came the exam. Lord have mercy. He fought and kicked and issued howls that sounded not unlike those of a wounded mountain lion. He scratched and thrashed and screeched and wailed. He was in complete flight-or-fight mode. I felt bad for him. He was completely freaked out.
The doctor said it’s completely normal for strong-willed children to behave that way. That’s good, I guess. I’m glad he’s not ABnormal. Ha.
So anyway, he checked out just fine. He’s already hit all his milestones and then some. He know’s all of his ABC’s, both uppercase and lowercase. He knows most of the sounds the letters make, but he hasn’t quite mastered that. He doesn’t know how to read just yet, but he can recognize some words like mom, dad, nathan, book, feet, etc, and we are working on how to sound letters out. He can count to 30 without help (with the teens being an exception… he always stumbles over 14-18) and to 100 with help. As in, I need to tell him what comes after 39, 49, 59, etc, but other than that, he’s got it down pat. Right now, we’re working on simple addition (2+1, 7+3, etc). This kid loves to learn.
So the doctor’s office is setting us up with a comprehensive evaluation to see where he stands intellectually, physically (as in motor skills), speech, and behaviorally. He’s too young for an IQ test, though. I suppose that can be issued once he learns how to read. I’m curious to see where he stands, however, and what I can do to cultivate his desire to learn.
So after the doctor’s office visit, we went to eat and then bathingsuit shopping for me. He was a perfect little angel. And that says a lot because he’s typically extremely strong-willed and sometimes embarrassing when I take him out in public. But this time, he minded me so well, sat on bis bottom the entire time we ate (as opposed to jumping around in the seat, which we do NOT condone), and then he was so very patient as I shopped for swimsuits. And then when we left the store, he blew kisses to the ladies at the cash register.
Oh how I love this boy.
