Right On the Money

Tommy and Mommy at the Ocean Grove 4th of July parade.

I admit that I think my son is the BEST kid ever. I'm his mom, and I'm biased. But I'm looking at the Developmental Check Points evaluation we got about 2 weeks ago from daycare for Tommy - for the 24-36 month age timeframe, and everything they say, I've been thinking and saying...right on the money!

Feelings & Self Awareness:


"Tommy is a sweet little boy with a great personality. He is very aware of other's feelings and very empathetic of both his friends and teachers. He is very affectionate and although sometimes needs to be reminded to share, plays very well with other children."


I could not have said it better myself. He is very aware of the feelings of others; he does this at home with us, seeming to just "know" when a hug or kiss might be needed. And we are constantly battling with him to share with other kids.  Part of it is an age thing, and part of it is the fact that he is an only child, and Tux and Tails don't demand that he share his toys.

Tommy shows off some of the loot from the parade

Large/Small Muscle Development:


"Tommy has great motor skills - both gross and fine. Spoons and forks are no problem for him and although he enjoys doing messy things, he doesn't really get himself too messy. he's getting better at tracing and holding safety scissors correctly."


My little athlete is quite coordinated.  The other day, my cousins were amazed at him standing and jumping out of the water table and landing on his feet, no problem. He favors his left hand/foot when doing most activities, though he does not use it exclusively. And the messy thing, he's funny for a boy, not liking when he gets dirty or messy!

Cognitive Development:

"Tommy is incredibly smart. He can notice differences that sometimes teachers haven't noticed yet. He loves to learn new things and asks a lot of "why" questions!"


Whenever my mom is around him, she must say, "you are so smart" or "he is so smart" at least five times in a weekend!  I don't mind...I'm glad to know others think that of the T-man. He DOES notice differences in things that even we haven't picked up on when looking at things that appear to be the same, but aren't. And the "why?" questions...I think every kid goes through that, but Tommy is never satisfied, even when I think he knows we've exhausted the answers we have for him. We have to tell him, "We'll have to see if we can look it up in the book." So far he has not asked us about this mysterious book, that even I sometimes forget does not actually exist.

Language & Communication

"Tommy has excellent language skills. Although he is still working on some consonant sounds (e.g. c, k), he is able to be understood by both his peers as well as his teachers. He speaks in complete sentences and loves to make others laugh."


The one word we notice the most is instead of "okay", he says "otay." But yes, we can understand him 99% of the time. There is a boy in his class named Nelson, whom he refers to as what sounds like "Marisa." My mom even thought that's what he was saying yesterday. But now I know who he's referring to...as I knew there was no one named Marisa. As for the laughing...the kid is on track to be voted class clown when he is older, I have a feeling. Sometimes it's intentional, and often it's not, but he does love to make others laugh.  And he has a great laugh himself, that is pretty contagious.

Overall, we are very pleased and happy with where Tommy is as far as his development. Up until now, we've been fortunate to have avoided the "terrible twos."  Notice I did start that sentence with "up until now."  Perhaps I should have said, "up until recently." More to come on that in a separate update, but the majority of the people I talk to say that age 2 was not bad, but the year between 3 and 4 is usually the worst. I just think "terrible" goes better with "twos" than "threes" so someone decided to call it that and let parents believe they were off the hook and escaped the terrible twos if it "wasn't so bad," as I've been saying...if the last 3 weeks are any indication of what the THREES will be, oh.my.goodness.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde...you'll hear all about him soon.