I've blogged about the terrific twos stage when my Benjamin turned 2 years old in March 2011 and this year March 2012, he turned 3 years old. You know what? 3 years old is a pretty terrific age!
I'm loving this phase of my boy's life! Really!
You know what's so awesome with a child at this age?
You can reason (and bargain!) with them!
For instance, I can now reason with my child easily. He wants to go swimming? Sure, make sure you nap so you can have enough energy to go for a swim later, and voila, nap for 2 hours in the afternoon! Want to meet your cousins tomorrow? Sure, sleep early tonight! Voila!
He finally understand the logic and implication to a lot of things!
For everything that happens, I explain to him why it happens, what will happen if we continue or if we ignore the event and also explain to him the effects and repercussion of the event. And he nods away in total understanding. That is something I can never achieve before my boy turns 3 years old. He saw a boy running at the pool and fell down and hurt his leg, we explain to him this is why mummy and daddy always tell him not to run around, now you see what happened to that little boy? And he nods away and every and now and then, he will remind us of the boy who ran and fell down and hurt his leg.
I'm also very happy with this development milestone. It's so much easier for me to explain things to him when he understand the cause and effect and in this sense, easier for me to get the message across to him.
His vocabulary is getting richer!
Oh boy, his ballooning vocabulary means it is so awesome that i'm finally having a conversation with my own kid! We have been doing more reading nowadays (mostly me reading to him) but there are times when my 3.5 years old boy will tell me story (yup, you read that right!) before bedtime! Cute eh? He also asked a lot more questions nowadays, where do animals stay, what they eat, why certain things are like this, etc etc.
He is getting more responsible and dependable!
One time, my 1 year old girl needed to go poop real bad and there's just no time for me to rush upstairs to bring the potty (she uses her brother's potty) downstairs. It was then that my mother-in-law insisted I took off my girl's diaper and let her try her (as in my MIL) metal potty (gigantic type for old folks to use) and despite me telling my MIL no, she insisted that I let my girl try and when my girl yanks away the potty and one of her poop fell onto the kitchen floor (and got my MIL shrieking) I had no choice but to let her poop in her diaper (no time to even rush the bathroom).
In my mind, I wished I could ask my 3.5 years old boy to run upstairs and get his potty for his baby sister but I was worried he might spilled his potty so I decided to just keep myself quiet and waited for my girl poop finish. Can you believe this boy of mine actually went upstairs and quietly brought down his half full of piss potty (sorry, forgot to throw the piss away) and a new diaper for his baby sister?!
I was really astonished when he came downstairs holding his potty and showing me the potty and a new diaper for his sister - without staying a word. I was really really proud of my boy!
Household chores that I do everyday such as sweeping the floors, mopping the floors, all this he will gladly offered to help me out! Lately, he even helps me to sooth and entertain his baby sister when I need to rush downstairs to do something quick. So responsible and dependable for such a young age!
More independent nowadays!
I also noticed in his terrific three year old phase, my boy likes to do things himself. Oh well, he tries his best to do it himself first. Bathing himself, going to potty by himself (even pooping and all), playing his Lego and much more!
Emotionally more stable!
Before Benjamin turned 3 years old, there are lots of times he will bang his forehead to the wall or onto the floor when he throws a tantrum. No matter how we talked to him, warned him, tell him no, etc etc, he will just smack his forehead, bammmm... to release that pent up frustration I guess...
So it is definitely a good sign that when he turned 3 years old, we are seeing this wayyyyyyyyy less... in fact, I can't recall when was the last time he banged his forehead. Probably because he can now understand logic and repercussions, and he can control his emotions as well as express himself better.
Cognitive development getting better!
Now, Benjamin can correctly name familiar colors (I have not introduce the concept of light and dark colors - or to be more precise, tone colors not yet)
As part of our learning activities, my boy can recognise and immediately shows me items which are same or different, his imagination and pretend play is very good now, he can easily remembers parts of a story, counting wise still 1 to 10 and with fingers until 5, time concept just started last week (for example, morning we eat breakfast, afternoon we have lunch, night we have dinner).
Social skills improvement
My boy used to be very very shy (like me!) but lately I noticed he is more open and warms up easily to strangers. Sure, he does take his time to let his guard down but the time is definitely shorter now! Previously he will clams up and takes about an hour or few outings or encounters with the same person before he warms up to them but now, he approaches and befriends people more easily.
I am still teaching him to greet his relatives by their rank wise (in Chinese custom, we have names for eldest uncles, aunts, on father side, mother side, etc) instead of simply calling them by 'Uncle' or 'Aunty' so and so which is common.
That's all the updates I can share for now, feel free to ask and share if you have feedback!
** P.S: This post is in no way trying to undermine your child or bragging about mine, I'm merely posting and jotting down why I'm loving my child being in the 3 years old stage.
