Freddie at 3 years 7 months

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my little lady, aged 2 years 4 months, and today it’s only fair that it’s Freddie’s turn! As I mentioned before, I want to have a little diary of what they are like at certain ages, and I wish i’d started one sooner (I’m not the only one who hasn’t completed their child’s baby books, right?!).

Freddie is our precious baby boy, an old head on young shoulders in many ways. Another early talker, and super-tall (98th centile!),  we often forget how little he still is, what with Sasha being the ‘baby’. I’m sure we expect too much from him, which is something as parents we have to keep in check. With Sasha arriving 15 months after him, I do feel terribly guilty that his babyhood was ended far too soon. As a result, out of the two of them, I always feel I worry a bit more about F and feel guiltier as a parent, possibly because I get frustrated more easily with our high-maintenance little man and his need for constant attention. Where as S is very self-sufficient, happy to potter and play by herself for ages, checking in with me only every now and again, F wants attention and someone to play with ALL THE TIME! And whilst I adore playing with him, there are only so many times throughout the day I can play trains, or keep building bridges and tunnels out of cushions which fall down after about a minute.

He is so much fun though, and I find him such great company, especially if we get some rare time 1-2-1 where he doesn’t have his sister to fight with/causing a distraction. We can take him anywhere, and he is so well-behaved out and about. Inquisitive about everything, he is a total joy to be around. My heart swells when I hear his little laugh and see his big grin!

Here are few things about our boy at 3 years 8 months:

• The train and transport obsession doesn’t show any signs of abating! He still loves building complex tracks with his wooden set, and will often rush up and down our hallway pretending to be a train. A telling sign of how National Rail is performing, is that his ‘train announcements’ often begin with “..and the next train to arrive on platform 2, is the delayed 16.40 to Bromley South”!
• F also adores drawing, play-doh, painting and rubber stamping, and has begun to try and write his name, often with interesting results!
• He loves baking, and will sit and look through our recipe books for ages, picking out cakes he want to try and make- a Great British Bake Off contestant in the making?! His favourite part of baking is cracking eggs into the bowl, although this often involves crushing the egg with one little fist- beware of shell if you ever have a cake made at our place!
• He is super-cuddly and will say ‘I love you’ all the time. I’ve been reading ‘raising boys’ by Steve Biddulph, and it says how important it is to let boys be affectionate as much as girls, and to teach them it’s okay to be gentle and have cuddles. I will be soaking up these for as long as possible!
• As a child who has shown no real interest in getting himself dressed (S will fight you tooth and nail to try and put her own socks and shoes on), we begun to gently encourage him to do so (we have a year now to master this, before school begins!). I’ve been really surprised at how something relatively insignificant to us, such as putting his own trousers on, has boosted his self-esteem. He’s so proud of himself when he manages it alone “I’ve done it all by myself, Mummy, look!”.
• Is definitely showing signs of following in his father’s footballing foot steps. According to Adam he has a strong kick with both feet (it’s good to be able to use both feet apparently!). We all love going down to the park, or using the goal in our garden to play football with both F & S.
• Freddie still often tries to come into our bed at night, although we seem to be coming out of a phase of this. He will casually walk in to our room anytime between midnight and 3pm, and airly say, “I’m just going to get in the middle here and snuggle with you for a bit, okay?”. Sometimes he stays, sometimes he returns to his own bed, depending on how tired we are and how much we notice our little intruder!
• Loves preschool now, has ‘proper’ friends and bounds in. It’s amazing the difference a year makes. When he started last year, he was quite anxious and it seemed to take him ages to settle in. Now you can tell he’s one of the older ones, and is such a confident little boy. You think a stage will last forever, and you worry so much, but then suddenly things change before you know it.
• Is still giving us a fair bit of attitude (if you read my ‘Living with a ‘Threenager” post you will know what I mean!). We’re hoping this is just a phase and (often through gritted teeth) are trying to be firm, fair and consistent and make it known that bad behaviour, rudeness and back-chat is not acceptable. Easier said than done on particularly tough days though!
• Loves his books, and will sit with you for ages being read to (S will often walk off halfway through a story!), He is starting to show an interest in words in a book, and will sometimes ask what they mean. I have no idea how to start teaching little ones to read, so I will perhaps have to look this up. All this phonics stuff seems quite confusing!
• Is still showing signs of being gifted with numbers and really enjoys sums and number puzzles (as someone who got a ‘C’ in GCSE maths, I have no idea where he gets this from!). This was first identified by the HV at his two year check after F was able to identify 3 digit numbers on buses from 20 months, and add and subtract, which is quite unusual apparently. He is bright but ‘normal’ in all other areas which is fine, but Preschool are having lots of fun gently pushing him to try new things with numbers which he really enjoys (I’m not sure this is my child!). Equally he loves running around the playground like a mad thing, making up games with his teddy and Happyland people and singing songs.
• Is a big fan of watching Ben and Holly, Thomas the Tank Engine and The Sooty Show.

and finally…

• We are having lots typical (and often frustrating) 3 year old questions at the moment. Latest gems include “Why do we have taps mummy?” and “Why are the clouds that colour today?” and “Does the moon have a name?”. All very valid questions, but often frazzle my very tired brain at the end of a long day! There’s definitely never a dull moment with a 3 year old….

Teaming up with Katie at Mummy, Daddy, Me and ‘The Ordinary Moments’