As William gets older and we learn a bit more about his behaviour, we start to see how much his body language is telling us. Unlike Alex who will publicly (and on top note) indicate how much he hates Frozen and how Elsa should be strung up from a lamp post, William cannot do so as easily.
Its a puzzle trying to figure him out, some days he might make it clear if he doesn't like something, maybe by walking away. Quite often if you're boring the crap out of him he will walk off and shut the door so he doesn't have to deal with you any longer.
So how do we figure out what he likes and what he doesn't like? Well its trial and error.
For a while William had not slept with a duvet on. He preferred snuggling up with my fluffy dressing gown and a crap old cellular blanket. Duvet underneath him was fine, but not on top, which usually meant getting cold in the night and waking (more often than usual). Its taken maybe 6 months and several different duvet covers for me to figure out that he just doesn't like the duvet covers I bought him. So the typical young boy stuff that we thought he would enjoy - Pirates, Cars, Dinosaurs etc. No luck. Cheapo dark blue duvet cover on sale at Aldi - within minutes of putting the damned thing on his bed I get a "night night mum!" as he scurries underneath it the little bugger! So now we know what he will sleep in. Halleluia!
Williams 'blankies' i.e. thieving mums dressing gown to sleep in.
One of mums plain duvet with no piddly annoying kiddies characters...! Hurrah!
Something that we've learned over the years is that William prefers to make a choice. He does need a visual prompt for this though, so when it comes to tea time, its easier to show him a bag of sausages and a box of fish fingers to choose from. He will point and say the word if he's in the mood. Sometimes he will walk off and you just have to guess. Just because he has the option to make a choice doesn't mean he will! Words are too much for William a lot of the time so keeping it simple and showing him something is more likely to get a response. Bribery with sweets works well too.
We are currently in the process of upgrading his bike. Bearing in mind William still loves this little plastic trike thing that has a little lap belt that barely fits round his pot belly, its time to get him a new one. But we cannot choose one we think he might like as a surprise like we could with Alex. Nor can we give him Alex's old bike. Because he's not interested. We will need to take him to a cycle shop and let him choose his own, and pray like Billy-o to the God of Dosh that he doesn't choose a 300 quid bike. If he doesn't make his own decision on something, he will refuse use it. This rings true for most things in his life, from food, games, clothing.
Its great that he has his own likes and dislikes, as you get to discover a bit more about his personality. By giving him 2 options you can eliminate the things he has no interest in, so far we've figured out that he hates character PJs, blankly refusing Skylanders and Disneys Planes. He likes red pesto but not green. He hates Frozen too but enjoys the Hobbit which is ace :D
William's very specific wants and needs do have advantages. Unlike his brother who thinks I have a secret money pit, William very rarely (if ever) demands anything when out and about. Alex always wants this that and the other. Ooh mum I haven't got a car like this can i can i? No Alex you have a roomful of cars. No but this one has a different shade of blue on the door.....
The disadvantages are that you have to try hard to figure out what he wants, as he can't talk about something to show an interest. Unless its chocolate. He always wants chocolate. This week he's been on coffee flavoured chocolate! That's my boy :)
"Burn that bloody dinosaur duvet cover Wottingers!"
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