wand practice – expelliarmus!
At almost 2.5yo, Ollie has a playmate whom he regularly sees and loves playing with whenever D and I hang out. When he was younger, he had this older friend “worship” thing. He would offer his toys to E, share his snacks..etc.
And then Ollie grew up a little, and has recently started with the “this is mine, that yours” statements. Or he wouldn’t share his toys. D and I have agreed that if the toy belonged to either of our kids, we are okay with them not sharing if they didn’t want to do so. However, we would come up with an alternative method to encourage sharing.
Recently, I came to realize how protective I was of Ollie when it came to him playing with E. I had the adult mentality of “hey, if I share with you, I would expect you to share it with me” and I was expecting that to happen between the two kids too. Whilst I was okay with Ollie not sharing his toys, I was not okay with E not sharing his toys, or not okay with E not returning Ollie’s toys when Ollie requested for it back. I was not okay if I felt that Ollie’s feelings were getting hurt, like someone didn’t want to share a toy..etc. I shared my feelings about it with Donald and he told me to let the kids sort it out, and if they needed help with the situation, they will ask for it. And D said the same thing about E as well.
Haha, in fact Donald reckons it would be good if E came over to play with Ollie more often! I just have to remind myself that they are kids, and that Ollie didn’t seem fazed about it if E didn’t want to share his toy. I mean, like WLE, if my kids are fazed about it, then why am I getting my panties up in a bunch about it? Okay, need to play down the protective mummy bit and let the boys sort it out themselves. And constantly remind myself that they are kids!!
Was watching E & Ollie “fight” it out with their pretend wands that actually unsharpened pencils. Both of them were having so much fun, and were in giggling fits as they “fought” it out with Ollie being in the stroller and E going around the stroller. I was getting amused by the both of them. If aaall playdates ended like this..how nice. =P
Proud mama alert!! I am soooooo super impressed by Ollie. Like seriously. He just blows my mind sometimes.
Okay, about a couple of months ago, I started teaching Ollie how to sign alphabets. It was a skill I picked up when I was a kid and it has stuck ever since. Donald can sign a little more than I do. Mine’s limited to just alphabets haha. So Ollie was really interested in it, and he very quickly picked up being able to sign the first, maybe, 10 letters very roughly. It gradually went on to being able to sign all 26 letters and his signing got more refined. He would sing the alphabet song and sign at the same time. Which was pretty cool.
What got cooler was me teaching him to spell the word “airport” using sign language. AND he could quickly recognise the letter I was signing. It was as though he was reading the letters off a page or a wall, whatever. I was super impressed. He’s got everything down pat. So bring on the signing, the uppercase and lowercase letters. He knows them all. Haha.
Today’s Ollie-ism on pooping:
It was a hard one tonight, and Ollie, regardless of any bribe, refused to get on the toilet to do the deed. And that is despite *looks around* Donald doing a demonstration and trying to entice Ollie to get on the toilet by letting him hear the dump. *roll eyes*
Have I officially grossed you guys out yet?
So. He finally did the deed, albeit on the floor. *sigh* And in typical Ollie-fashion, he peered at his poop and asked…
‘what is this? why so longer longer longer?” Translated: What is this? Why is it so long?
Now that, I am grossed out. Pfffpt. Boys.