Growing Up

It dawned on me that day that the little one has grown up. The younger one is five this year, and the change in him for the past few months has been quite significant. While he still looks very babyish and is certainly still the baby in the family by virtue of his birth order, he behaves more maturely now.  He participated in the school's concert 2 weeks ago, and was really serious in doing it well. He loves the dance so much that he would get into movement as soon as I hummed the songs.  His ability to "talk back" is good and I sometimes feel amused by his rational and logical reasoning. Of course I didn't praise him for talking back and kept the feelings of amusement to myself. On the whole, he has been more responsive to discipline and reasoning in the past few months. 2 years ago, he almost drove me crazy with his stubborn behaviour. He would hold back his tears and say that it didn't hurt when I beat him even though it clearly was. I hated the frequent battles with him, and little things triggered his temper tantrums. In retrospect, I think that phase was instrumental in helping him develop his ability to reason and manage his emotions now. Once we were talking about his behaviour in school, and he cried bitterly, feeling sorry for what he has done. I refrained from scolding him because he volunteered information of his misbehaviour to me. He was not defensive and nodded in agreement when I pointed out how his teacher has been kind and that being cooperative with the teacher is being helpful to the teacher. It is fun to hear him talk, and he continues to be very adorable and being a dear. However, I noticed that he has a strong sense of insecurity and tends to react to criticisms or negative comments about him. He is also prone to jealousy - another sign of insecurity! I have noticed that he often complained being neglected when I am having a conversation with his elder brother. I have tried to address that with him, pointing out his feeling of jealousy and assuring him of my love.   I like it when he repeated the phrase I said to him  "I love you more than you know!" in a serious tone. This phrase may be grammatically incorrect but what it means is that I love you more than you have perceived or understood.