New Beginning

The past few months have been quite difficult for us.  Preschool just didn't stand a chance against hyperemesis.  TV has become a constant in our house, and that has been all my son has done for months.  I have felt incredibly guilty not being able to do the things I wish I could with him to begin his education.  I have watched his behavior drastically change from the amounts of TV, and I was tired of all the tantrums that have resulted from it.  Everything started to be a struggle, so I wanted a change.

This past week the hyperemesis has started to lighten up (in exchange for constant contractions), so I decided to start reading to him.  I ordered a copy of Charlotte's Web off of Amazon to read to him.  I didn't have any idea how it would go over with him, but I needed to try.  It turned out much better than expected!
The first day we read Charlotte's Web, we ended up reading 55 pages, and then he brought armfuls of other books for me to read to him!

I was quite surprised at his selection of books that he wanted read to him.  Many of them had pigs in them.  One even went into detail about what a runt is.  It wasn't a fluke because I watched him scan his pile to pick out the precise books he wanted read.  It's nice to know that a 3 year old can still follow along with a chapter book.

 My son sure did surprise me.  He loves reading "Charlotte's Spider Web Book".  Every few paragraphs he would steal the book from me to read the letters at the top of the page, and then tell me the page number we were on.

Today is the second day I have limited TV.  Yesterday he didn't watch anything.  Today I am letting him watch Happy Feet.  His behavior has greatly improved, but it does need to be tested.  The real test will come when we take him to a store.

Even though he is allowed to watch a movie, reading has been his priority.  We read a few pages in Charlotte's Web, and then he took a laundry basket to his room.  He then pushed this huge basket of books down the hall for today's reading.  He fully expects Mommy to read them all to him today.

Today has been a good day.  It started by going through his toys to pick out what we can give to other kids.  I expected a lot of push back from him.  Instead he enjoyed helping!  I want to get him down to things like legos, trains, blocks, and a few cars.  Everything else I want gone.  It just takes too much space, and requires too much cleaning.

Hopefully I can continue this to a certain extent.