Dad has an exam this week, so this is a shorter than usual post.
Puff continues to amaze us with how well-mannered he is, and how much he can remember and recite. When talking to some of dads co-workers, he managed to get past his shyness enough to start quoting some numbers (counting up and down), and even say hi to some people he’s always been shy of in the office. A positive step.
We took him to a couple of cafes and a park on Sunday, and – after a lengthy time on the play equipment – spent some time stomping on autumn leaves. He really enjoyed it, and even tried his hand at racing Dad across the park. It’s still a new concept, so he needed a lot of encouragement to keep running, but he managed to touch the park bench first (Dad might have been going a little slower than top speed to keep it competitive).
We’re starting to be more careful in our choice of cafes – will it have the kind of toys that will keep him distracted for long enough to eat some food, or drink our coffee? Do they have high chairs? Here is a dad’s-eye-view of what it’s like to look after Puff in a cafe.
Everything else continues on much as usual. He’s very co-operative with getting out of the bath, with the nightly process of teeth-brushing, and – though he doesn’t always come straight away – he will generally respond when we tell him to come and have a meal, or to get ready to go out.
Dad in particular has been struggling to find the patience sometimes, but it seems a better result when we wait a little while extra for him to be obedient, rather than try and punish him somehow for being disobedient (there’s not really a punishment that makes sense to us yet – he’ll cheerfully explain that what he was/is doing the wrong thing, but that doesn’t quite get us to the point of obedience).