So Dexter turned 2 1/2 on 10th May 2015. The rest of that month passed by very quickly. At the end of it, I decided I needed to cut the proverbial apron strings (or at the very least loosen them) and allowed my baby boy to grow up a bit.... just a little bit.
I had managed to keep him in a cot all that time on the basis that well, there was no reason why he couldn't be in there. It was big enough to accommodate him. He had never tried of climb out of it. Why would I change anything? But recently, as woke one morning (rather late) and gazed at my son on the monitor just quietly laying awake, playing with his monkey I had a slight sense of guilt. That because he is such a content and well behaved child that he wouldn't even make noise and create a fuss to let me know he was awake and wanted to get up. That I'd had no idea how long he'd been awake and maybe he was bored and just too polite to wake me..... and that was it; my turning point. I decided that he was a big boy now and I wanted to give him the freedom to decide when he wanted to get up. Whether it be a case of he plays in his room. Or comes in to wake us up. We told him all about him being a big boy now and needing a big boy bed. He seemed very excited so off we went to Mothercare for a safety gate and a bed guard. He watched with interest as daddy dismantled his cot, removed the sides and his new bed slowly took shape.
He was super excited to get into it. He loved the idea that he could climb in and out by himself. Before Shane could even close the book of his final bedtime story he was off. Jumping in. And we never heard another peep. Not that night or any other. He sleeps just as well (and as long) as he always did and as yet he hasn't even bothered to get out of it on a morning. Maybe he wasn't bored being stuck in his cot after all and is just genuinely lazy haha
Maybe moving him into his new bed made him grow up over night. Because all of a sudden he seemed different. He looked more mature and grown up and his speech seemed to take a massive leap too. His speech has always been very good, clear and understandable. I wouldn't really say he 'learns' new words anymore as I don't think there is anything that he can't (or won't) repeat. The most significant change though is with his construction of sentences. He can get his point across so well, he can tell you about a sequence of events in order, he can sing full nursery rhymes and even make his own up and he can recite scenes from his favourite films (mostly Monsters Inc) almost word for word. It's just brilliant, we can have full blown conversations together and he understands absolutely everything that we say to him.
The biggest change for Dexter over the past 3 months though, has to be be that he has recently learned he is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!!!!! I'll be perfectly honest, when we initially broke the news we didn't exactly get the response we were hoping for :/ He was tired and cranky and was really against the idea of mummy and daddy bringing a baby home to live with us.... however, after a nap we spoke to him again and showed him our scan picture. We explained that the baby is currently living in mummy's tummy but we will soon be able to bring it home for him to play with and look after. Thankfully he seems much more into the idea now. Although he changes his mind about what he would like - at the moment he tells us he wants a sister but so far we think he might be getting a brother.... the new scan looks remarkably like Dexter did on his first scan too so we are currently under the impression we're having a boy. We're counting down being able to find out the sex thought so we can help prepare him for exactly what he can expect :) But he has since become increasingly happier about the situation. He is always telling people (and me) that there is a baby in my tummy and he will sometimes stroke my belly as he says it (it's so cute!) It's less cute when you are out in a public place though and he tries to lift your top up to show people haha
So yeah, my little man has done quite a bit of growing up recently and is no doubt going to be the model big brother come February 2016, ready to teach his new sibling everything he knows.... we can't wait xx
