Linnaeus 4.3

This month saw a few fun things & a few new things for Linnaeus:

1

His first Smaland visit at Ikea. Now that the lockout is over, we finally went shopping there again. He loved it & I loved not having to wrangle him in the store. Win-win!

2
Halloween! This was actually his fourth time trick-or-treating but he really got into it this year. He said "trick or treat" at all the houses we went to without much prompting, said "thank you" when he received candy without any prompting & really loved the fireworks & running around in his dragon costume.

3
Waking up early hungry. Linnaeus is NOT an early riser--none of us are--but he's been waking up before dawn some days, coming into our room & demanding that we feed him. Growth spurt, I guess?

4
Related to the above point, but not what you'd expect, he hasn't gained any weight in months. He's growing in height, but is still only 38 pounds. Which means we haven't had to buy any new shorts or underpants for over two years, but it also means he's not quite big enough for a belt-positioning booster seat in the car.

Monopoly Junior game with Mama & Papa

5
His interest in letters & numbers has returned. While not so interested in Boggle Junior, (thankfully I didn't buy it but borrowed it from the toy library) he really liked playing Monopoly Junior.

(click here for my full review of Monopoly Junior)

6
He's starting to draw pictures, finally. I admit, I was starting to worry a little, because whenever I gave him the opportunity to draw anything with chalk, crayons, paint, pencils, markers, you name it, he might scribble a bit, but usually would flat out refuse to make any marks at all. It's fairly normal to be drawing recognizable people & objects at his age so I was concerned that it might be a bad sign. Whew. I don't think he's going to be as interested in making art as I was--I spent a lot of time drawing every day from when I was a toddler right through to adulthood--but hey, not everyone is an artist.

MamaPapaBubba inspired candy colour experiment

7
He's hit the Whys?, asking the reason for things constantly. This can be annoying, like when he asks things that don't really make sense, or can't really be answered. But sometimes it means we get to do fun experiments or talk about how things work, which I love to do.

8

Linnaeus is slowly getting more independent with using the bathroom, getting dressed, taking shoes off when we get home, & things like that. I still can't expect him to do any of it consistently (he's very good at going to the toilet when he needs to, he just asks for help with wiping, or company while he's in there sometimes) but it's slowly happening.

9
One of his favourite things do to is trike riding at high speeds. Between drop-in sessions at the family centre & three days of preschool, he does this four or five days a week. It's one of the main ways he gets his hour of vigourous exercise for the day.

Triking in "Robson Park Lake", aka the huge ball court puddle

10
He still loves warm drinks & has them with most meals. Favourites this month are hot lemon (lemon juice in hot water with a teaspoon of honey--great for the monthly preschool cold he gets), hot chocolate (a teaspoon or two of black cocoa, a teaspoon or less of honey, a half cup of hot water, a half cup of milk), "Inka" (Akava, a chicory/barley based faux coffee drink. It's changed names twice since we started drinking it, but we still refer to it by its old name), "milky tea" (usually rooibos with lots of milk).



How about you? How are you getting your exercise these days? What are your favourite hot drinks at this time of year?

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