Note: I wrote this over a month ago, and already, updates are necessary. Ugh, blogging is tough these days. (Also, I published this from my phone, because I suddenly can't figure out how to upload pictures from my computer, so the formatting is all messed up. I'll see if Pauly can fix it later. Sorry!)
Beck is four. Wow. He's a preschooler, a big brother, a smart, gentle (most of the time), skinny, athletic, all-around cool little guy. At his check-up, he weighed 33 lbs. (23.28%) and was 39.5" tall (30.99%). He was in basically the same percentiles a year ago, which means he is growing as he should. I don't mean for this to be a Braggy McBraggerson post, but I don't really sing his praises that often, and I love to look back at my old posts to see how he was doing (I also love to compare him and Nolan at similar ages). So, allow me to tell you about Beck - the good and the bad.
We have to fill out a developmental questionaire prior to the appointment, and I checked most of the boxes. The one thing he's not really excelling at is drawing/writing. He is far behind a lot of his classmates (I see some of their drawings and I can hardly believe they were done by 3-4 year olds). He really doesn't enjoy drawing, and when we do something artsy at home, it's usually painting because that's what he enjoys the most. I've seen him draw a "person" once - picture below. This was quite a while ago, but he hasn't really done anything better since then. He can totally recognize and spell his name, but he can't write the letters yet (actually, I think he maybe can if someone is telling him how to write it). I didn't even bring it up at the appointment, because I'm sure there's nothing wrong with him - he's just much better at other things and I'm sure the drawing/writing skills will come. He rides a bike, sans training wheels, like it ain't no thang. He never used training wheels and went straight from the Strider balance bike to his Lightning McQueen bike. It took him about a day to get the hang of getting himself going on his own. That was in August, when he was 3.75. So, gross motor skills - he rocks. Fine motor skills - maybe not as great. He loves to read and likes anything from Tinkerbell to Superheros. He received Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends for his birthday from his buddy, Cristian, (what a great gift, by the way), and we've been reading lots of the poems. He chooses the ones with funny pictures, but I like reading them all, so that's fine by me. He can recognize all the letters, and we're just starting to work on learning the letter sounds. He can count pretty high, up to thirty, at least, with little assistance from us - he could probably get to 100 with some redirection. He can also count to twenty in Spanish (he needs help once he gets to catorce). He can get dressed by himself, which is a relatively recent accomplishment.
A few days ago, we got home from work/day care and I was unpacking the kids from the car. I had my bag, a bag of the kids stuff, plus various items like shoes and socks and snack cups, to bring inside and I was talking about how much stuff there was. "There's so much stuff to take in, I don't know if I can get it all!" Beck said "I'll help you, Mama." He started grabbing all the loose items from the back seat and took them inside. That's also a fairly recent occurrence - him offering to help without a request from me. There's been a lot of focus on "behaving" lately, with Christmas approaching, and the whole "naughty v. nice" business, and he gets it. He's trying really hard to be "good." Even without the added incentive of Christmas, though, he is a very well-mannered kid. He often offers to share without being asked. I don't know how much of this I can take credit for (I've consistently required that if he brings toys to the park, for example, he has to share with the other kids and he ALWAYS does), because I think a lot of it is just his personality.
I'd still characterize him as a picky eater. Really, he just does not like to try anything new. He has expanded his tastes quite a bit, though. We've been trying to enforce the "always try one bite" rule and it usually works, but often takes a little cajoling from us. Get this - he likes raw spinach. Also - pumpkin pie is a new favorite. We've pretty much chosen to just not fight that battle with him, and he often gets a separate meal made for him, which is not what we are supposed to be doing (I realize this and sometimes feel guilty about it). The reality is that he is extremely stubborn in this area, and we make sure he eats a well-balanced diet, so the endless meals of chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with a tiny bite of vegetables and lots of fruit are probably going to stick around until he becomes a bit more flexible. The progress is slow but it's there. He loves bread, but used to refuse to eat things like bagels and english muffins. He now eats bread in all its forms. Score!
I'm learning that he needs a lot of sleep. I think he might sleep more than Nolan. He still takes a nap most days, for about 1.5 hours. He's in bed between 7:30 - 8:00 and is up around 6:30, which means he typically gets over 12 hours of sleep. I think he'd sleep in later if not for Nolan. We had a rough period this summer, with lots of TANTRUMS and just general disagreeability. I think a lot of it was due to the fact that he was going to bed closer to 9 (summer is hard when it stays light out so late). Once I realized that was the problem and started putting him to bed earlier, the problem pretty much resolved.
So, skills, personality, eating, sleeping...I think that covers most of the big areas. We recently decided to change preschools because the "preschool" class at the boys' current school isn't providing much of an education (it's mostly play, which is fine, but Beck is at a point where he is ready and able to learn more than what he is getting from his school experience). I'm guessing that his reading and writing skills will improve quickly once we make the change. He's a smart kid and I'm excited to see him be challenged in new ways.
