Somehow my baby is a whole 2.5 years old today - tomorrow he will officially be closer to 3 than 2! We are in coronavirus lockdown so the last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. We weighed him on our scales a few weeks ago and he was about 12.4 kg so he's following his centiles nicely. He's still in 18-24 month clothes (and some of them are still big). His 4.5 size shoes have finally got too small - he's had them since September and typically grows out of them in lockdown! Fortunately he loves his wellies and they're a 5 so plenty of room and I got him some cheap shoes from ASDA the other day in a 5 to keep us going until I can get his feet measured properly.
Development
His development has been absolutely crazy in the last few months and he is developing such a great little personality. I really wish I could document every little moment and anecdote!
Speech
His speech has definitely caught up to average, if not a bit above, now! You can have proper conversations with him, he speaks in full sentences, asks questions and generally has a word for everything. He remembers phrases from books and TV and can request specific stories or episodes of things. He knows all his colours and can count to 12. He has recently taken an interest in a phonics song they have sent from nursery (only A to E) and has been practising the sounds and singing the songs. He can generally articulate his wants, needs and some of his feelings. He's incredibly polite and always says "please" and has just started saying "sorry" umprompted when he's done something he shouldn't. He recently started enjoying Jack and the Beanstalk but couldn't catch what the giant was saying so was stomping around shouting "three, four, five, six" which had us in hysterics - he's got it now though. He's also randomly taking to saying "you most welcome" and doing a little bow whenever I thank him for something which is super cute. His little voice is just beautiful and I could listen to it all day. His favourite thing at the moment is asking "what's that mummy" and "what's that noise mummy" to every single thing - it's exhausting but I love his curiosity.
Gross Motor
He is finally starting to run - the last few days he's insisted we all run together on our little walks which has been cute. We managed a kilometre in 15 minutes so not bad for his little legs! He can now jump with both feet and is managing to easily get up steps/pavements. He used his balance bike properly for the first time today just walking around with it so hopefully that'll help with his skills. He can catch a sticky ball on a pad but can't quite catch an actual ball yet. Climbing isn't his strong suit but it's mostly a lack of interest.
Fine Motor
He's starting to be able to use a knife and fork but prefers to use his fingers so doesn't get as much practise as he could do with. He isn't really interested in drawing/colouring so it's hard to tell where he's at with that. He can thread tiny beads on to matchsticks and has learned to use tongs with one hand to pick up pom poms and buttons - one of his current favourite activities. He can use scissors but needs to use two hands and loves using Ant's pliers to take Mega Bloks apart. He's still quite ambidextrous but he is starting to favour his right hand for more challenging tasks. He's been competent with a dustpan and brush for quite some time.
Self-Care
We are working on this one - some days he's very cooperative and others he just doesn't want to participate. He is now fully potty trained unless he's really distracted and can get his pants and trousers down by himself and take himself off without supervision. He does have a bad habit of tipping the wee on the floor afterwards though! He can just about get his clothes back up again but mostly doesn't want to and honestly getting him to even keep trousers and pants on has been a real battle. He tidies up really well and knows where to put things in their place.
Social/Emotional
It's hard to tell where he's at with this area at the moment as we have been in lockdown for almost six weeks now so he has seen nobody other than myself and Ant. It took him a few days to settle into it but he's loving it now. It has been difficult with my working hours changing a lot but he's taken it mostly in his stride and his behaviour has been generally less challenging. I'm almost beginning to wonder whether he is actually autistic now but I think that's just because he's in his comfort zone continuously. We've had a few video chats and he's happy to see Nana and Papa mostly and always asks if it is them when the phone rings but he's not like most children his age are at the moment - missing their loved ones and wanting to go and hug them etc. He's not once asked to see anyone. Weirdly enough, I saw something today that said people have realised material things aren't important, they aren't missing those but are missing friends and family. Ant and I have repeatedly said that actually what we are missing most is going to places and doing things, the simplicity of being able to nip to the shop, not seeing people. The only people we are close to live within our house and although we like to communicate with others, technology has allowed this fine, so maybe he's just like us. Oscar has suddenly got quite cuddly though which is nice and likes to snuggle at bedtime too.
His pretend play seems to have re-emerged a bit after a couple of months with very little - I bought him a chewy tube the other day as we would like to get rid of his dummy soon and I thought it might help his oral sensory processing. He absolutely didn't want to chew on it but he did use it as a hammer, a rake and then pretended to be a doctor taking my temperature with it, telling me I was hot and then going to fetch me a plaster.
Health
He's done really well with dairy and, when we couldn't get almond milk because of the panic buyers, he had regular milk on his cereal with no issues. He split his lip falling onto Ant's plyo box a couple of weeks ago which was his first proper injury - he's only ever even had scraped knees once before! Otherwise his health is pretty stable right now.
Eating
Eating improved a bit and he even tried a few vegetables but then it went downhill again. Currently we are in a bit of a middle phase - his safe foods change regularly but he will now eat some fruit (raisins and apples, although the apple only when it's mine). He generally loves rice (only from a packet), scones, meatballs, popcorn chicken, ketchup, cereal (Weetabix/Shreddies), garlic bread, crackers and bread/toast but mostly just with Nutella on! We noticed when we started potty training how little he drinks so we've been working hard on that. We've had to start giving him really dilute squash and supplementing a bit with ice pops/ice cubes, which he loves crunching even though it hurts my teeth just watching him. He has started being more open to trying foods and did eat raspberries (which he called rice babies) for the first time this week, but only frozen.
Sleep
The sleeping through did not last at all! After a few weeks we were back to regular wake ups and me sleeping on his floor. We ended up taking the plunge and buying him a double mattress which takes up most of the floor space in his room but has been a godsend. He loves the space and it means that I don't end up crippled when I'm sleeping with him. We did recently have a few nights again where he slept through but now he's generally waking between 9:30 and 11:30 and I just go and get in with him. We had some horrifically early wake-ups, around 5 am. Nowadays he tends to wake around 5:30 but I can usually get him to stay in bed until somewhere between 6 and 6:30, it means I'm still awake but then Ant will get up with him and let me get a bit more sleep if I'm not working. We've capped his nap at 2 pm as bedtimes were getting later and now he generally falls asleep between 7:30 and 7:45. He tends to fall asleep at naptime between 12:30 and 1 so he still has 1-1.5 hours most days. Today he napped in his pushchair without his dummy for the first time and we've started a reward chart - we tried it the other day and he lost his mind (as we normally use the dummy to bribe him into the pushchair) but this time we distracted him with an ice pop and he took a while to fall asleep but he was happy enough. We did have one day this week where he didn't nap at all, for the first time, but it seemed to be a one-off.
Nursery
We don't really have an update from nursery as he hasn't been there for about six weeks. We did try to do a Zoom session for singing time with them but there were so many people online it was just loud and a bit of a mess and Oscar just wanted it turning off. I'm really dreading trying to get him back into nursery once lockdown is over but at least with Ant being self employed we can ease him in gently hopefully.
Likes and Dislikes
He has a "special stone" which is a sparkly rock he dug up in the garden and goes to bed with him, along with Hooty the owl. He currently loves his big Hide and Seek Pig floor jigsaw and his train that spits dominoes out the back. His favourites change every couple of weeks and he still loves blocks, balls and playing with water. He is happiest when he's outside. On the garden he loves digging (Ant bought him his own proper rake and spade and he's obsessed), being in the paddling pool and kicking his football around with us (his aim is pretty good). He loves getting out for walks and exploring, pushing his toy pushchair around and spotting things (magpies, ducks, vehicles and, most recently, poop). He is obsessed with his tiger wellies still and won't wear any other shoes - even in hot weather - although he has recently started tolerating grass in bare feet! His favourite TV shows at the moment are Paw Patrol, Hello Ninja and Daniel Tiger. His favourite books vary but he loves fairy tales (Jack & the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood etc) and still is a big fan of Julia Donaldson books. He still loves chores - sweeping, hoovering, cutting the grass etc - and has recently found a love of baking. He is always fiddling with his penis and seems to enjoy kicking things at the moment but you win some, you lose some.
He isn't keen on having his face wiped and can get quite upset if we are trying to have a conversation that doesn't involve him.
Autism?
Generally things have settled down somewhat but I'm assuming that's because we are in lockdown and things are pretty predictable. He isn't having to go to any unusual places or spend time around people. We have had a letter to say that he will be assessed by a Community Paediatrician and a Speech & Language therapist (not because of his speech but to assess social interaction etc for autism) but obviously there is already a long waiting list and it isn't moving at all because of lockdown. I will be interested to see how he copes with the transition back to nursery etc - he coped with the transition to lockdown pretty well but that's because he's stuck in his comfort zone. He even didn't go out for walks for about five weeks because we got out all the garden toys from last summer so the novelty kept him happy in the garden.
