A year in the life of a toddler

So my corner of the Internet has lay dormant for a while. With the demands of work and fixing this house I put my blog on the back burner and just soaked up my family time.  I'm now on maternity leave it appeals to me to get back into blogging and connect with others in similar situations again.

It's been a year or so since my last post and a lovely one full of family milestones. 

Joel has just come out of the terrible twos to become a threenager. These stages are always so negatively labeled making parenting seem like moving from one hellish phase to another. 

 But I have found this a wonderful year!   He found his voice, learnt to express himself through his amazing imagination and developed a distinct personality with ever evolving preferences and dislikes.  

Terrible twos? I disagree, his development has been a joy to watch and to be part of!
Now of course there have been moments when parenting has been tough and there are days of endless whining and pushing the boundaries.
I've tried my best to respectfully parent Joel and offer explanation for limits and discuss his behaviour and feelings with him. I try not to limit him too much and allow him to explore and express himself, feeling listened to.  But there are many days where the only parenting tool I've had to offer is, 'oh, just give over Joel' or recently 'right! I'm phoning santa!!!'.  Shame! 

Even on those challenging days I find it hard to hold my serious parenting face because, quite frankly, even when he's being a wee shit he's still bloody hilarious! 

Joel has had some major events in his wee life over this year. 

He has moved from nappies to pants. A tricky skill to master, and one we are still working on. And when you think you've nailed it? You're wrong. Just ask my husband about a recent shopping trip without wipes which resulted in some improvising with a random sheet of kitchen roll and some left over fruit shoot.

Joel found his voice, with a slow start to talking I began to get concerned.  But apparently Joel was just listening and waiting until he was ready and all of a sudden there was another voice in the house. That kid never shuts up now, from he opens his eyes in the morning he sings his favourite songs, asks questions , constantly narrates his day, tells far fetched imaginative tales and skilfully negotiates biscuits and later bedtimes.  He's pretty cool. 

He has moved from his cosy cot, to mattress in the floor to big boy bed with confidence. 

He has become a big brother, welcoming a baby sister into his life. Now the big kid of the household, he has had to learn the hard lesson that my time is now divided. 

He has left his day nursery as I'm not working but on maternity leave.  He said goodbye to some caregivers that he had grown attached to and who had influenced his development so strongly. He progressed to playschool  making new connections and finding his way in a new territory. I was amazed to watch him take it all in his stride. 

He has developed meaningful relationships with different characters on his life. His granny, who lives only a street away has been a reliable chum in a time of confusion and change since Nuala, his baby sister, arrived 12 weeks ago. At times when I was stuck to the sofa cluster feeding he knew he could look at his granny and not be turned down with the request; 'you play with me granny?'.   Granny, dutifully cast as Zurg,
set off for many adventures with Buzz.  They often share a cup of tea and biscuit together between intense play sessions and share jokes together. In fact he has become quite the social butterfly, developing his own relationships with people important to him, independent and happy enough to go galavanting around houses for sleep overs and hanging out with his cousins. 

However we still have the dummies. I had plans to take them away so many times this year but now with a new baby in the house I am reluctant to mess with anyone's sleep! So dummies are here for the foreseeable future and I'm pretty relaxed about that fact. 

Last Tuesday Joel turned 3. I can't believe it. He's an actual person, a big brother, a part of a playschool class and friendship group, part of the cousins gang.  We have now entered the threenager territory, and although he is continuing to push boundaries and develop plenty of annoying habits, I'm so looking forward to watching this fledgling person grow and develop further. It's that constant internal parenting conflict of wanting to freeze time but revelling in every new stage. 

Terrible twos? Loved it. Bring on the threenager fun!!!