Summary of Jack at 29 months:

. We were saddened by a report from childcare that Jack is not talking to any of the other kids there at this stage - although he does talk to the carers. However he has been talking to Kaitlin at playgroup, and Mitchell when playing ball with him in the street. I am hoping that more one on one 'play dates' might help give him more confidence in talking to other kids.

. Jack has picked up saying 'mine, my, your, you' this month. He doesn't always get them right. Some days he will say 'Mummy come with me', but then other days he might say 'Mum come play with you'. It is a tricky concept to try to explain to him. He can also use 'mine' possessively with toys at playgroup or other people's houses (for things he is playing with, but aren't actually his). The other kids his age also seem to be just starting this type of behaviour. This has led to a few tantrums when he has refused to put toys down when leaving a house – and I have had to peel the toy out of his hand with him furiously saying 'mine'.

. Jack still has some cute mispronunciations. My current favorites are 'banklets' (blankets) and 'colourling' (colouring).

. We have had a big step forward in the sleeping department this month. He is finally going to sleep by himself! I lie down with him for 5-10 minutes and then I lie down on the floor next to him while he falls asleep. He sometimes climbs out of bed to cuddle me, but accepts going back into the bed. He also chats periodically to me, to which I respond (otherwise he just keeps repeating until I do) but then tell him to close eyes and go back to sleep. He is going to bed later and taking longer to get to sleep since daylight savings started. Jack is also staying longer in the cot (sometimes to 3-4am) before coming to sleep with me. He will also sometimes get up and come looking for me rather than just sit up and call or cry for me. (Doug – the above didn’t last for long…)

. One of Jack's back molars has come through this month, with another one looking close. This has been characterised by his usual antsy temperamental behaviour. It will be such a relief when the final 3 teeth are through and teething is behind us!

. Jack is becoming more independent in his play, and spends part of most days playing by himself now. He even told me to 'go away' yesterday as I was in the way of what he was trying to play! (Doug – the above didn’t last for long…)

. Jack is getting excited by Christmas, with all the trees, decorations and Santa’s about. He loves listening to our Santa, snow-man and reindeer sing 'jingle bells', and bops along to it. As a result, jingle bells is his favourite Christmas carols at the moment. When it came on at Gymbaroo today he excited ran laps around the place singing along. He is still a bit wary of Santa so doesn't want to go and sit on his knee to get a photo, and I had to take the lolly out of Santa’s hand as he was too scared.

. Jack is going through another phase of not wanting to participate at music class and the group activities at Gymbaroo – instead just wanting to watch. I got Dad to come along to music class one week to see if that would help, but he had about his worst week! I tried to motivate him with practicing for the music concert this week by telling him that both grandparents and Dad would be coming to watch him so he needed to do a good job. This seemed to help and he participated more than usual. However in doing so I broke my own rule of not telling him about things in advance, since he expects them to happen immediately. He kept talking about the concert and his grandparents coming to watch when we left in the car, which I thought was a good sign. However I soon realised my mistake when we arrived at childcare and he was in tears thinking that he had been going straight to the music concert. Then when we picked him up after childcare he cried as soon as we turned the corner into our court, as he thought that surely now he was on the way to the music concert. I then tried to explain how many sleeps to go to the music concert. It remains to be seen what sort of performance he will do when the big day arrives.

Posted by Al at 2:31 PM