Joey

Over the past couple of months Joey has amazed me with his ability to adjust to change with style and I have also been in awe of how much he has grown and changed over the past couple of months. When I originally planned my move back here, I always said that I would give it six months (well, until after Xmas at any rate) and then we would re-assess the situation and if things didn't look like they would work out in the long term, Joey and I would go back to Kagoshima. Thankfully, it doesn't look like that is going to happen but I was thinking the other day that if I had to choose six months of growth and change to share my son with my parents, this would be the six months to do it. It has also been completely amazing to see him make the switch between Japanese and English. When he first started nursery, I was a little bit concerned that the huge shift might be too much for him and for the first couple of weeks I did second guess myself alot but the past week has been much easier and he has now settled completely, so much so that he runs into nursery in the morning and is obviously very happy to see his teachers and his buddies. Although I am very happy that he is settled and that my job is going well, there is a teeny part of me that is a bit sad that I miss out on being the one to teach him stuff. However, there is a bigger part of me that is enjoying watching him become more and more independant and seeing how much he is learning. I know alot of it is stuff that I could teach him myself but I firmly believe that spending time with other kids and learning how to relate to other people is good for him. I also like the fact that his Nursery have certain guidelines for behaviour and if kids don't toe the line then they get time-outs etc.., something that I never saw/ heard of at his daycare in Japan. Next week they are going to start potty training him and I am hoping they will do the job for me! I do feel like a terrible mother to be so content to let other people help my son reach certain milestones but he is perfectly happy at nursery now so I am not going to stress out about it! Linguistically, Joey is coming on in leaps and bounds. When we arrived here he was only communicating in babbles and the odd word here and there but now I can no longer count the number of words he can say (in both English and Japanese) and he is able to communicate alot more eloquently and copies everything we say. I can tell that he is going to be a real chatterbox in the future and I will wonder why I ever worried about his speech development. Joey's new BFF is our dog Scamp. Scamp is a long-haired chihuahua who has lived with us for the past 14 years (since I was 15) and he has not been very well recently. I am quite allergic to him but Joey LOVES him so I am now dreading what will happen when he passes away. (which might not be in the very near future but it will happen sooner rather than later as he is really quite sick at the moment and has to have meds twice a day) How do you explain to a 2 year old that his best friend is no longer with us?! My Mum has a book called "dog heaven" which I think I will be reading to him quite alot. However, I guess I shouldn't worry too much and cross that bridge when I come to it. Anyway, enough babbling for now, I was just feeling a little bit gooey about Joey today because I recently became a pro on flickr so all the photos I uploaded two years ago are now visible again and it amazes me how much he has changed and grown since then. My little boy is so completely not a baby anymore!