I do.
At least, so far.
Owl turned three in September.
We held his party at Science World, which was expensive, but he had a good time, which is the important thing. I suffered a lot of anxiety around that party, even after it was over. Especially after it was over. I can’t explain why in any rational way.
Owl had a blast.
Watching his little friends help him open his presents while explaining and showing off their presents was TOTES ADORBS.
My adult friends stood around awkwardly until we released them to go explore Science World, but I’m glad they came.
Owl managed to bash himself in the face moments before cutting the cake, giving himself an instant and angry shiner, but that was the only set of tears that day.
And three? So far, it has been awesome.
The whining, which he had been trying out in the latter half of his twos, has cut down dramatically over the last couple of months.
I still have to remind him to say “please” fairly often, but I don’t have to keep demanding his “polite voice” over and over again ad nauseum.
His whiny voice only creeps in maybe once a day or so, and is silenced relatively quickly.
But even better, he has suddenly developed the ability to PLAY INDEPENDENTLY.
It’s like a MIRACLE.
I mean, not all the time, and usually for no more than 20 minutes or so, and not if he’s feeling hungry or tired or the wind is southerly, but you know what?
I’ll take it.
It started with Angry Birds.
I started letting Owl play Angry Birds on my iPod while I took my shower and got dressed in the morning.
I considered it a minor step up from watching On Top of Bald Mountain and the Danse Macabre on Youtube, which was my previous way of occupying him long enough to get clean and dressed but came with a much more defined time limit.
I say “minor step up” because the the jury is still out on videogames. We’re all sure in our souls that there is no way they can possibly be good for children, but the research keeps coming up indicating otherwise: improved problem solving, improved fine motor coordination… even creativity, oddly and inexplicably.
But then, on his birthday, he got the real life version of the Angry Birds game (which, by the way, is awesome, and PH and I MAY have practiced launching birds at the blocks ourselves after he went to bed some nights).
But more on that in another post.
He loves every part of that game. He likes to build the towers, trying to make them match the cards. Then he likes to knock them down.
He preferred playing this to playing the iPod version!
Next thing I knew, I was checking my Facebook, showering in a leisurely fashion, dressing, drying my hair, and all to the sound of blocks smashing downstairs and a little voice saying “oops! I missed it! I’ma try with the LELLOW ONE!” in a constant running commentary.
When he got bored of Angry Birds, he moved on to Lego.
…I like three.
If By Yes 