Well, he is getting taller and skinnier and I see a little more of his own non baby face taking shape - he is so beautiful that it pulls me up short sometimes - but I am madly biased - he has a little more sense of distance - there are times when he plays so intensely all by himself - he loves to know that we are near though, that is very important. When I watch him in the morning I may dash away to try to get something done on my computer - a moment later he will come back and grab my hand and tell me something has happened that I must come look at - almost always a train wreck - his little wooden trains piled up as they have been a thousand times before. I say "My goodness what a terrible wreck! Are they OK?"
and we start to put them back on track. When all is well I rush to the computer and type 4 words and a little person scampers in again -'Daddy, a little green engine is in trouble!" So I do my work in 5 second intervals between train wrecks.
And yes, it sometimes it shows.
His Mom took him in to the doctor for his 3 year check up and he is "low tone". Whatever the reason it IS common in kids who were preemies - his sense of balance is weak and he continues to be a slow developer at running & jumping. Both of us feel he will grow out of it but we want to learn whatever we can about exercises, techniques etc. to help him move forward. When he stands on uneven terrain he can't look up at stuff - you can see his whole body concentrating on not losing his balance. At the same time though, he is getting better at these things and can climb up into the car seat from ground level and plop into position. He also seems to more enjoy falling in play - I give him horsey rides with slow clip clops around the house and then it goes faster and faster and I yell "runaway horse!!" and throw him onto my bed. Not long ago that would have been traumatic or nearly or only fun once but now he will ask for it again and again till I am gasping.
Meanwhile of course he is amazing verbally. Not long ago his Mom had to take his little green train away when he threw it in a mad moment.
The next day he mentioned it a couple of times (though he had had it back since ten minutes after the event) and on the way to daycare I was singing "You are my sunshine". I sang a couple of verses (and by the way, has nobody noticed what a DEPRESSING song it is? We sing it like it was cheerful but it's a song of gloomy woe and loss! But I digress...)
I got to part that goes "You'll never know dear, how much I love you..."
and perfectly on note and in rhythm, Isaac sang "Momma don't take my green train away!"
For the last week I have been sick - I was coughing a lot in the car on the way to daycare today and Isaac said "do you still have that cold, Daddy?"
And I said "Yeah, I'm mostly over it but I'm coughing because I've still got a lot of mucus in my nose and throat."
And he said "Eww!"
