update on the 3 y old

Not much going on post the bday party. I think everyone had a great time. The weather was wonderful, the pizza nice and greasy, the cake(s) a toddler's delight. It was great to see the kids playing together, interacting, talking, running around. It was also lovely to catch up with the parents! I am still looking forward to those parties where you can just drop the kid off...maybe next year?

Pepe has been v busy with all the new toys and books. He keeps having conversations with his trains, diggers, backhoes..v sweet to watch.

Our plan with giving up the baba is not working. Pepe announced with a pout on his face that he does not want to give the baba to babies, "I still using it". There you go. So we still give it to him at night, 1/2 full, so that's progress. The potty training has stagnated. Pepe pees everywhere and loves to watch the flow.Once he peed in a dump track and was very excited about moving the liquid with his backhoe...none of that happened, luckily, as i got involved. Tonight he caught poopies in his hands, and transported them to the toilet, I guess that is progress, too.

Pepe is so eager for peer acceptance. At school he is super popular and all kids want to play with him (or so I hear). At the rez, however, he gets kinda lonely. He tries to butt in to other kids' (older) plays, building with them, talking to them, but he is rarely successful. Kids are not v acceptant of a younger kid (dahhh!). This afternoon the situation got to him. Both Chris and I watched him from a distance. A bunch of older kids were building one of those water dumps, and Pepe wanted to get involved. He tried talking to them but they did not pay attention. He got a little bucket and started pouring water like the older kids, but he got yelled at a few times. All of a sudden I see him banging the bucket into this older kids who gave him a hard time. It was an easy one, but still, the kid got mad, went to his mom crying. Mom immediately went to Pepe, and I sent Chris along as well. Chris started telling Pepe that he should not have done that, and the mom mumbled something, too. Immediately Pepe hugged the kid, said sorry, it was an accident, and went his marry way. Good social skills, but obviously nothing internalized. And it was clear to me that this was all related to the frustration of not being included,and not having the language and ability to express this frustration. i tried to talk to him this afternoon about it, not sure how much sunk in. i really hope he'll have it easy on the social realm. there is nothing worse then the feeling of not being accepted...