The Treadway Chronicles: Miscellaneous Fall Fun and Connor update

Here are just some pictures of us enjoying the fall. We have actually been home the past two weekends, so we're enjoying the time to get things done and just hang out as a family.

Since there is not much to add about these pictures, I figure now might be a good time to give an update on Connor. I'll be updating Avery next week as she turns 6 months old (weep, weep).

Connor has definitely settled into some of the bad habits of three year olds, but when he has his moments, he can still be just the sweetest little boy ever. They say that getting from 3 to 4 is harder than 2 to 3 (so much for the terrible two's) so I think it's to be expected.

As for the bad habits I mentioned, Connor has certainly ramped up the whining and defiance. I hear "no" and then Connor crosses his arms across his chest probably 30 times a day. It gets so frustrating, especially when I'm not asking him to do anything too hard. Some days it seems like he fights me on everything. We work on it though and time outs and counting 1, 2, 3 seem to work, but it's still hard.

He also tends to get frustrated sooo easily. For example, if he can't fit his train tracks together the first time he says, "I can't do it" and then throws the train track piece. Of course throwing toys is not a good thing at all, so we are working on that. Sometimes he says he can't do something before he has even tried, which drives me nuts. If something is hard, that's OK, but to not even try and already say, "I can't" is irritating.

Apparently he does it at school too, so that's not good. We've had a few bad reports from school, which is honestly pretty surprising, but he seems to be getting better at being a good friend (i.e. not hitting and sharing) and not throwing things, which were the teacher's biggest complaints. Of course they said these behaviors are normal, but I still felt bad that my son was being challenging. Again though, the last two times I've picked him up at school, they gave me a good report.

As per usual, his eating habits also make Jeff and I crazy. He is not interested in trying new foods or vegetables, but we decided recently we are going to take a stand and do our best to just serve him a modified version of what we're eating so it's not the same "kid" food every night.

We also are making him try at least one bite of everything and he can't leave the table until he does. All the experts say to just offer good food and if they eat it great, if not that's fine, but our child is way too stubborn for that. I guarantee if I put a vegetable on his plate every night and didn't tell him to eat it, he wouldn't just eat it on his own. He is not curious about new foods. He stubbornly refuses to try them unless he's forced too, so we're trying this for now. He has actually done pretty well so far.

We have also stopped giving him candy as special treats for doing good deads. It was getting a little out of hand. We want him to behave well to make us happy and to be a good boy, not because he might get a candy treat. He is actually starting to get the fact that there are no more special treats and we told him that too much candy makes him sick and I think that made sense to him the most.

He is still struggling with telling me he has to go pee pee, but he'll tell me when he has to go poop. I still have to ask him to go pee or he may have an accident, which is frustrating, but I know every kid gets it eventually. I wish that time was sooner than later.

He goes to bed around 8:30, but can stay up later now that he's older. He still naps almost every day from about 2:30 to 5 or 5:30.

Although he can be a bit challenging at times, he can also be totally awesome as well. His language skills are really blossoming and sometimes just listening to him tell a story can be the most adorable thing in the world. He is starting to actually talk on the phone to people and his back and forths are so cute. He'll also tell me about his day a bit more. He also does this really cute thing where he whispers sometimes when he's excited. One of my favorite current phrases is, "no thanks." He also makes exclamations like, "No way" or "This is tasty." It's just funny.

Also, he seems to be a really good listener when it comes to his teachers and coaches. Whenever I go to his gymnastics class or his other play class he always participates really well and does what his teachers ask him to do, which is not the case with some of the other kids in his class. I am always very proud. He sits and waits his turn and is kind to the other kids in his class. He also goes right into class without a fuss. I see some kids clinging to their Moms or crying because their Mom left them, but Connor doesn't seem to have that separation anxiety. He waltzes right in, ready to have fun. He'll wave to me as I watch, but he continues to participate and have fun.

It is also so cute to watch him play with other kids. Almost every time after I pick him up from his school on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's, we play on the school park for about an hour. Seeing him talk to his "buddies" and ask them to play with him and to hear him laugh so hard when he's playing is so sweet. He still has this adorable and hearty laugh that you just can't help but smile when you hear it. Considering the fact that he is very shy with strangers, he is a very social kid with his peers. He prefers to play with other kids than by himself, which isn't always the case with other 3 year olds I interact with.

He is still really into sports and now that it is College Football season, he is really into football again. He loves all sports though and continues to play golf, tennis, basketball, baseball, soccer, and he started making up a hockey game too. It's funny, because we just recently started going to this place called Great Play where they introduce the basic concepts of sports and just athletic play for kids and one day they had a little unit with golf and all of the instructors came up to me and said he was really good at golf. They sort of seemed surprised at how good he was. I just smiled, but it wasn't news to me. He's good at all sports. Just wait and see instructors...ha!

He also likes trucks and trains, but lately he has been really into pretend play. He likes to dress up as a pirate or a cowboy and make up pretend scenarios. He also likes to hide and have us find him. He likes super heroes too.

His favorite TV shows at the moment are pretty much anything on Nick Jr., but he seems to really like Bubble Guppies, Team Umi Zoomi, Peppa Pig, and Fresh Beat Band. He also likes Curious George on PBS. He seems to be way into all of the Toy Story Movies too. We try not to watch too much TV, but that's really not that difficult, since he'd much prefer to play than watch a show. We often start the day with a show, but that's probably for my benefit too, so I can get dressed and sort of ease into the day. It's not easy keeping up with that toddler energy.

Overall Connor is still a sweet and silly boy who makes me laugh and smile every day. Some days I smile more than others, but for the most part he really is a good boy and I am so thankful for him. Now enjoy some random pictures from the past couple of weeks.

One day I was feeding Avery in the living room and I heard Connor playing in the kitchen. Sometimes he "cooks" for me. When I came back into the kitchen I found that he had created this scene all by himself. He said his froggies were having dinner. He gave them each a bowl and a cupcake pan. Plus I just love that the frogs are sort of propped up in their chairs so they can see. He is clearly proud of his work too. Look at that grin.

One of his froggies enjoying his Connor made dinner.

Connor has started to actually draw faces when he is scribbling. I think he learned it at school or saw other friends doing it, because he just started doing this one day. As far as I know, this is his first "real" drawing that looked like something, so of course I had to photograph the moment.