Exciting news, our nearly three year old boy is finally graduating to the BIG boy Kea Room at his daycare! Normally kids move to that room at around the age of two years, but we made the decision to delay his transition to allow him to develop more at his own pace and to keep him in a room that had a slightly higher teacher to child ratio. Plus he was so loved and treasured in his old room! However he is definitely well and truely ready for the new room, and after a very well managed transition by the Daycare team, he has settled in and adapted very very well. The new room has much more age-appropriate toys, more outdoor space, and lots of fun puzzles, a light box and lots of playmates and activities to share in. We're thrilled, and looking forward to seeing Nate continue to blossom!
And hanging out in his new room with a new puzzle.....and trying out some painting....
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| Nate in the far left... |
Nate has made awesome progress with his physical skills more recently, and takes particular delight in walking from one end of the wall in our back yard, to the far end which involves stepping down some levels. In fact he will do this over and over again, balancing on the beam and chatting away happily to whomever is walking beside him. He'll often stop to smile and laugh at anyone who happens to be outside watching him (like Granny and Grandaddy), and point at the tree in the middle, and make a little excited sound along with it! It gets to the point that we have to sign 'once more' and 'finish' to him, so he knows that we'll soon be stopping. Like all nearly 3year olds, Nate doesn't like games stopping until he's good and ready, so we have to do this to give him fair warning! He holds his hand and little finger up, signing 'once more' and then makes the 'finish' sign back, so we know he understands and that stops any tantrums. However the sneaky little bugger has learnt some tricks - he gets halfway through the wall walk, and tries to turn-around back to the start, so that he is technically still on his 'once more'! No flies on our boy :-)
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| Out of the way Mummy! |
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| Learning to step up and balance |
Nate has also being enjoying bonding time with his sisters over summer. He LOVES to run around after them chasing the ball. He gets super excited, and bosses them about if they happen to stop running for an instance. He quickly points at them to run, and gives them a helping pat directionally! Lots of gleeful noises and 'more, more, more!'. It's fun to see him so animated. His bigger sister has gone away to university now, but he still took great delight when his other sister showed up last weekend, quickly directing her out on to the lawn with his ball!
We've also been getting out and about a but more over summer months, well when I have had the energy! More on that later. Here is our little man at a different park near by, fun to see him excited to explore something new. As you can probably tell I'm official photographer, so there are never as many photos of me with our little man as there are of Robin!
And here he is at one of the Auckland jump parks having a jump with Daddy - while he likes running around the tramps, he hasn't yet really grasped the jumping on them concept as yet. His balance is not the greatest so when he tries, he pretty quickly ends up on his butt! The gap between Nate and typical kids his age is very apparent when he is in an environment like this, both physically and socially. But we figure it has to be good for helping him develop his balance, his co-ordination, and ultimately more core strength. This might have to be a regular thing for the next term to see if helps him...at the very least Robin will be fitter :-)
Other big news - Nate has also learnt his numbers! He is still largely non-verbal, but he knows which number is which and if you ask him to show you which is '3' on his mat or which is '7' (or other), then he will excitedly show you! Loves it! Another benefit of being in daycare I think! Reaching milestones like that is so rewarding - we are just so proud of our little man. Here he is hanging with his Grandaddy....and Teddy...at the end of a big summer day :-)
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