Today Is June's Day

Jen,

It's me again! Today I'd love to tell you more about June and how I really have this love hate relationship with (almost) three-year-olds. Seriously, LOVE and HATE!

June is my go-with-the-flow-with-a-million-smiles girl. She's very grateful and is constantly saying "thank you" for everything you do or give her. She's had about three tantrums in her entire life and those have all happened within the last couple of weeks. I contribute this to her becoming almost three. I don't understand why people say that two-year-olds are terrible because it's when my girls have turned three that they have realized that they want to be babies AND they want to be big girls all while trying to tell Mommy what to do. 

Dirty face girl saying "hi" to her Auntie.

Now, I am not saying that Juney (that's what we often call her) is never disobedient because she truly is my explorer. She's the one who I find standing on Ada's bum when I enter a room or the one who has peeled off all the wall decals because she wanted to know how that worked. This summer she won a flashlight for having books read to her from the library. Catina won that flashlight weeks and weeks before June, who doesn't have time to sit because she is busy exploring. Also, once June did earn the flashlight she decided she needed to know how it worked and disassembled it until there were no more pieces to come apart. 

This is how I found her flashlight. Don't knock the 80s style sheets! We got them for free. ; )

Every morning we have this little argument about wearing her hearing aids. She covers her ears and says "no hearing aids" and then "no brusha my hair." Yes, she is Italian and says "brusha." Typically once I get the hearing aids in she doesn't bother them, but whenever we obtain new ear molds she decides she doesn't really like them (Maybe because they fit better?) and pulls the aids out it seems EVERY HOUR! This time around she has pulled them out so often that the tubes came out of the molds and now I have to bring her in to get new ones. Thank you, now we need to drive 30 minutes for a screaming appointment to wait two weeks until they are delivered, all to start this all over again.

I go back and forth on whether or not we should be forcing her to wear the aids. I do know the facts that show that if a child wears their aids a majority of the time at a young age that their speech is much better later on in life. This can make me feel guilty at times when I let her wander without them. At the same time, I always wonder if she will grow up and tell me that the reason why she didn't like the aids is that they always made this weird sound in her ear or gave her headaches or were too loud. Ugh, how awful would that be?

My ballerina princess. She is loving ballet class!

Now all of this could be her stage, right? Like when we try going pee pee on the potty and she yells. Yes, she yells "NO CHOCOLATE, MAMA!" OK so chocolate is not an incentive for June to use the restroom. She has decided she wants to be a baby right now and wants me to feed her a sippy cup like a bottle. Once in awhile I will consent to cuddle her. I know this is all the inbetween I'm a baby but I'm a big girl stage. Is the hearing aid issue the same thing? Also, what's up with not going in the potty but wanting to put on her own shoes and socks?

June is graduating soon out of the Early On program and will continue her parent tot class along with going to a speech therapist once a week. Right now her speech therapist comes to our home and plays games with her. In these next weeks we are meeting her in a classroom setting where I am not in the room. They will be testing June for her receptive and verbal language. Although June is talking in full sentences her articulation is hard to understand at times. 

This girl is very hard to get out of bed. At times she pushes my face away or rolls over under the covers.
The opposite of Catina who you might call Tigger in the morning.

We are also concerned she doesn't always understand things. She is very literal which is so much the opposite of me and just like her Dad. If you tell her to ask for something nicely she doesn't realize that she should say "Milk please" and instead will say "Nicely" no matter how many times I try to explain that to ask nicely please to say "please."(Here is where I look into the camera like Jim on The Office.) If you ask her to show you her ballet dance she will point to how to get to ballet even though I try to tell her I want her to show me the steps to the dance. This will be our challenge. Mama is figurative and Juney is very literal. 

Prayers for the ever-dreaded, not-really-happening potty training, speech therapy testing, and for patience with my little explorer.

Ann

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Ann,

Never a dull moment! What an example at how siblings can be so different, which of course means we have to change our approach with every single child.

Prayers continue!

Jen