The reluctant 3 year old.

Otis is now 3 years old. And I'm not sure that he's too happy about it. He tells me numerous times each day that he is "still a little boy, not a big boy yet", and that he doesn't want to be a dad yet. I try to reassure him that adulthood and all of its trappings are many, many years away. But still he reminds me, over and over again he defines himself as something closer to baby than he actually is.

It's all connected to the dummy. We had grand plans for getting rid of it in a very final and dramatic fashion upon his third birthday, but of course we left for our annual camping trip the day after and the idea of battling through tent sleeping sans dummy was intolerable to me. So I postponed the challenge of dummy eradication to an unspecified time in the next few weeks. He knows the dummy is on its way out and he'll do whatever he can to prolong his affair with it.

He currently only has his dummy for going to sleep. So his new thing is to tell me he's tired at random moments throughout the day, just so that he can lay on his bed and suck away with a gleeful expression on his face. Of course sleep is nowhere in sight...

With ageing, comes independance. In some areas Otis is determined to manage on his own - he loves to "read" aloud now, the story a mixture of rememberings and his own interpretation of the illustrations. And he is really thriving as a toilet-trained, pooing-in-potty person. He likes to flush and turn on the tap and use the soap all by himself.

But then he also likes to be fed, to be dressed, and for me to play game after game with him, day after day. I am working on this. No more feeding him... It was only ever dessert, we had a ritual of all sitting on the couch together after dinner, Phil and I feeding the babies their messy, sticky concoctions as quickly and cleanly as possible. But I've stopped that. And I don't dress him anymore either... Sometimes I have to instruct him as to why he has the wedgie from hell though! But he's learning. And growing. And soon that dummy will be history...

One more funny anecdote. He's worked out how babies escape the confines of their moummy's tummies. The tummy apparently breaks open like an egg, and the baby hatches. A doctor then glues the tummy back together, waiting for "the glue to dry" before sending the mummy home. Hence my stretch marks... Evidence of repairs I guess.