My little bear is growing up...

I'm happy to report that we've had vast improvements in going to kindergarten this past week. My screaming child has been replaced with a little man super excited to go to school. It has been a huge relief to me not to walk away from a child in such angst.

One thing that I think is helping a bit is that little r is making friends. He really looks forward to seeing his pals at school. His best friend is Linus. Linus is the son of my friend, Nina. We often cross paths on our walk home, and the boys love this time together.



After we had coffee together early last week, both of the boys have been constantly asking about the other. It's really cute - Nina and I are both enjoying watching this little friendship grow.



I also have to mention that little r's behavior has matured overall recently. Our ski vacation to Austria this past week was easy peasy. It was almost unreal how much better he was compared to our previous trips. Except for a few toddler moments, little r was a pleasure to be around all weekend. Even meals were enjoyable :)

My grand efforts to follow the advice from the book Bringing Up Bebe have apparently been worth it. Probably the most notable is the advice on snacking - or should I say, not snacking?! I have been careful not to be constantly giving little r food. It is kind of amazing how much we American mom's do this with our children. I now only give little r a snack in the afternoon. I also rarely let little r watch tv while he's eating, something I was getting really lazy about.

It's funny how well children will eat when they are hungry at meal times. He eats nearly everything we give him now. During our Austrian trip, I didn't give into his whining for snacks at the table before our dinner arrived. I instead explained to him that our food would be coming soon. He fussed a little, but not like I would have expected. When dinner came to the table, he would eat like a champ and sit through almost the entire meal. It was awesome!

Yep, he is becoming quite the cutie pie these days and growing up right before our eyes. My next big project is hopefully teaching little r how to stay in bed, or at least play in his room, a bit later in the mornings. Oh, and I'll be really happy when the dreaded sock fuzz scare has ended. (Any advice you can give on how to help little r get over his extreme fright of the bathtub would be super helpful.)