Three Years and a Half: A Portrait

Here is our little guy (who is not so little anymore) at three and a half years... still as smiley and happy. 

For the stats, he is 1m4cm (about 41 inches) and weighs 16.3kg (36 pounds) (according to my home measurements).

The main changes since the last post three months ago (see Three years and three months: a portrait post), I would say, are: 1) He still is interested in everything but his interests have further deepened; for example he is now very much into anything space related and wants to know all about the big bang, the planets, asteroids, moons... and asks to watch YoutTube clips about space stations and satellites, 2) He is out of the "why" phase - he still asks a lot of questions and always demands an explanation, but his automatic response to anything you say is no longer why, 3) He increasingly plays WITH his friends making up scenarios and stories and games, negotiating the sharing of toys and taking of turns and 4) His speech is even more complex and his diction is even clearer. 

Our little monkey.

Noah CAN (abilities in no particular order and in addition to those listed in the 3 year + 3 month portrait post):

• Provide useful sous-chef help in the kitchen. He has become much more capable in the kitchen and needs less guidance with the things he can do. He can wash veggies and remove the stalks (e.g., for mushroom), he can break eggs into a bowl without getting (too much) shell in, he can measure out flour and liquids in a cup and put the right amount in and grate large amounts of cheese.  He can stir things as they cook (we supervise him on that one), man the blender (no touching the blade though!), make balls of dough and roll them out (e.g., for pita bread), remember ingredients and steps for various recipes, and tell me what to do next when helping with a recipe he has done with his dad previously. By far his favorite aspect of cooking is buzzing the food processor (e.g., making "carrots beep") and cracking eggs. And, of course, tasting the food along the way. If you're not paying attention, he can taste his way through an entire bell pepper and a few cloves of garlic.
• Swing  his own  swing pumping his legs; he was almost there a few weeks ago and last week I took him to a nearby playground with a swing and he had it - pumping his legs and swinging his entire body to create momentum - I don't know why but it felt so great to see him happily swinging on his own; 
• Go to the bathroom and wipe his butt on his own (though he will often come out and ask me to check whether all is clean before putting his clothes back on - it is almost always clean);
• Move all the chess pieces appropriately; I don't think I had told Noah about Tonton Charles's love and mastery of chess yet Noah showed much interest in the game and in learning to play chess; I bought him a set for Hannukah and he got some books and chess learning games from Tonton since then and he has learned to move all the pieces and do very simple problems; 
• Play with his friends making up scenarios and games - just the other day, he picked up a rock from the ground which became a pet rock named "Montessori" (his name choice) and he and his friend Kathryn took Montessori to art class (Montessori had to draw in the sand), and to the slide, and to nap and when Montessori was in a bad mood after his nap, they rocked him (i.e., ran around the playground while holding him); Noah has also gotten much better at negotiating a relationship and compromising and figuring out how to share and take turns without parental intervention (though parental intervention is still necessary sometimes); and
• Do 50 piece puzzles on his own.

Little monkey monkeying around

Noah DISLIKES (in no particular order - I reiterated certain dislikes from last time that are still applicable):

• Not getting his way - this never changes and almost always involves food. Overall though he is pretty easy to manage even when he does not get his way; 
• Waking up too fast and moving fast in the morning (especially when it comes to eating breakfast) or after his nap. It had become pretty hard to get him out the door in the morning so we started a new routine a little while ago where he dresses before eating breakfast and we provide him a clear choice every morning. He can either fuss/whine/drag along but if he chooses that path and we are not able to make it out the door by 8:30, the next morning, he eats breakfast at school instead of at home or he can cooperate and eat breakfast at home tomorrow morning. Since he was presented with this new routine and choice, he has been much better in the morning.
• Coloring in drawings made by others (ie coloring). He can do so pretty well when he tries but finds it very boring and generally does not put very much effort into it (when I asked him in view of doing this blog entry what he disliked - coloring was his only response!).
• Not getting to do/eat what the adults are doing and eating. He is a big boy and does not appreciate being treated like a little boy.

 

Noah working on his "sad face" - he still can't fully wipe out the smile from his face

Noah working on his surprised (?) face

According to Noah, Noah LIKES  (in no particular order - I reiterated certain likes from last time that are still applicable):

• Playdates: Noah still has regular weekly playdates with his friends around Singapore. It has been the same friends every week for the last 2.5 years, and he is enjoying it more and more.  (As we described above, they invent games, scenarios, and imaginary worlds to live in.) When asked about what he likes, this was his first, immediate answer.
• Swinging: Noah is always asking to go to the "new playground" (which we have now been going to for the last year and is no longer the newest playground we discovered in our neighborhood but it has remained the "new playground" - something like the "pont neuf" in Paris). The main attraction of the new playground is that it has swings, and Noah loves to swing.
• Climbing on slides/walls: Noah likes to climb on everything he can!
• Art class, computer class and speech and drama: Just this month, Noah's school introduced some specialty segments. He now has a special art teacher for an hour every day, and he has "computer class" and "speech and drama" once a week. He loves the art class---we'll post some photos of his many masterpieces shortly ---and he looks forward every week to his other classes.

According to us, Noah also LIKES:

• "Why" books: Noah always wants to understand how things work. Everything. A few of his most recent queries: Why do onions make you cry? Are there more girl ants than boy ants in an ant colony? What do you eat in the country of Nauru? How do snakes have babies? Why is there fire when a rocket launches? We have recently started our own notebook where we write his questions, look up and jot down the answers, and then Noah illustrates. 
• Books (and videos, and photographs) about space: One of his most frequent topics of interest is space. How did the moon get up there? How many moons does Jupiter have? Why do we only have one moon when Jupiter has more than 60? Why is there no one on Mars? How did the robot (the Mars Rover) get to Mars, and what is it doing there, right now? Why does the moon change size? Why aren't the astronauts on the space station wearing their suits? (And can I see a video of them wearing their suits?)
• YouTube videos: He has learned that the answers to everything can be found on YouTube. There are clips of astronauts and anteaters and everything else you might want to know about.
• Books, especially (these days) the Gruffalo, various Dr. Seuss books, Comment On Fait les Bebes, Le Doudou des Camions Poubelles. Just the other day, a visitor sat down to read him the Gruffalo. But it became quickly clear that really what he wanted was to read the Gruffalo to her. Well, he can't actually read, but he can fool you sometimes. We've only had this book for a few weeks, so we were surprised he knew it so well.
• The Lorax movie. We still have movie night every once-in-a-while and Noah very much enjoys and looks forward to it. These days when asked to pick the movie, he usually goes for the Lorax.
• Theater, especially theater for kids. He recently saw "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Gruffalo." During the show, he laughed, participated where appropriate, and generally had a great time. During "The Cat in the Hat," he asked lots of questions about what was going on, but for "The Gruffalo," which we saw a few months later, he had figured out what this whole theater thing was all about and was really into it.
• Origami: Noah has recently decided to help decorate his sister's room. Since he likes folding paper (and cutting, and gluing, and tearing), we have been teaching him some simple origami.  His origami skills are not entirely honed yet but he enjoys trying and likes the finished product. He is also making some drawings to go on her wall both at school and at home.
• Drawing: If we are busy with something and leave him to entertain himself, he will most likely sit at his table and draw pictures.
• Cooking: Noah still loves to cook, both real and imaginary food.
• Eating: As always.
• Going to Sentosa: riding the monorail, watching the people fly in the wind tunnel, play on the beach, go to the aquarium, do some luging and ride the "elevator" (a large viewing platform which goes all the way up and then turns slowly so its passengers can see the view).
• Playing games with us such as candy land, snakes and ladders, I spy, find the penny, orchard, connect four... he has gotten very good at figuring out how to play his games but also the new games we get every week for toy exchange.
• Toy and book exchange.
• Going to the library and picking out new books to bring home.
• Looking countries/cities up on his globe.
• Maps and figuring out what street we are on, where we are going, how we get from place A to place B.
• Giving and receiving TONS of hugs and kisses - he is very affectionate these days.
• His little sister-to-be: he always talks about her and kisses my tummy and tells her he loves her and asks her what she is doing right now.
• Watching the "word on the street" sesame street video podcast which provides in a fun way the meaning of a word - so far we have watched veterinarian, persistent, remember... etc. The other day, we watched "activate" and later that day he used the word correctly in a sentence - so cute.
• Piling stuffed animals in his bed. In his old small bed, he was allowed three animals as there was no room for more but now that he is in his big boy bed, there is plenty of room and I have noticed that more and more animals are ending up in there. 
• Making "sculptures" out of chairs and rubber bands.

Overall, this is a great age - Noah at 3.5 years is a fun kid who is generally enthusiastic about everything he is doing. He is interested in the world around him and can and will carry on long and complex conversations about any topic. He is pretty independent but still loves to cuddle and give and receive tons of kisses and tells us he loves us all the time.  He has not lost his stubborn streak (luckily) but we can generally come to some agreement about how to proceed in whatever situation. Noah is a great little guy and a pleasure to be with and interact with (in my very unbiased opinion of course).

Hanging in there!

Ziplining?

I wonder if I can jump down from up here?

Maman - what do you think?

Peekaboo

Made it up

Hmmm the view is pretty nice from up here.

Are you going to come up and join me?

I found a nice drum up here!