Jack's Not the Only One

Learning new things around here.

With the baby coming we decided it's really time to help Alaster be more independent with some important life skills etc. He's just been our baby for so long! And that has been perfectly fine with me!

We made a mental list of things Aly really should be doing by himself at this point and we are working on them. Example One: Getting Dressed and Undressed Himself!

I lay the clothes down on the floor and then he gets to work. He can pretty much do it all himself now. Yay! And as you can see, he's pretty proud of himself when he does it right!

One thing I love: He doesn't quite have the attention span to just sit down and get-it-done all in one shot. He has to stop and play at some point. Usually it's something like throwing pants at me and running around until I corral him back and get him on task again. This particular morning he wanted to "show you a trick!" and he spent a few minutes running and jumping over the pants I had laid out for him. Funny stuff!

Eventually he got back to business:

We have also been working diligently on his ABC's. Each week we choose a new "letter of the week." He and I get out a specific letter book to introduce him to it, see sounds and examples, review previous letters learned and sing the ABC song. Then we spend about a half an hour reading books and hunting for the new letter of the week in them. After that I draw it on a piece of paper and Aly posts it on the fridge:

It has become something the entire family enjoys doing with him. Can you see Jack drew him a "G," (this week's letter) and wrote some G words for Aly? Everywhere we go Aly is on the lookout for the letters of the week. He gets so excited anytime he sees one on a street sign, or building front. He's doing great and learning them all really quickly!

Beyond some necessary life skills, and learning his letters, Aly has just started to really become more observant and inquisitive about life. He asks questions like "Why do potties have lids?" and "What does the green light mean?" etc. And then he follows those questions up with more and more questions until he has really figured things out. The day he learned about stop lights was so cool! I was really surprised at how detailed his questions became. He kept asking and asking, pointing out inconsistencies... like when someone went even though the light was red - etc.

I am reluctantly proud of what a big boy he is becoming. It's hard to see him get bigger, but it is so much fun at the same time. He is taking real pride in what he's accomplishing, and for that I am grateful. I want him to know he can do it! For so long he just didn't even want to try. It's been a nice change to see him become so confident, and his whole family is cheering him on!

Do you worry about Aly when the new baby is born? Well... I want to tell you we are prepping him for that too. This baby is our whole family's baby. He is so excited. We look at baby things and he tells me "Mom, you hafta buy dat! Our baby needs it!" After the ultrasound yesterday when I was a little worried about him I asked "Aly, when Truman comes is he going to be the baby boy or are you?" He replied happily: "He will be the baby, but I'll still be cute!"

Yes, yes you will little boy!