Here is little miss Hannah, doing her thing. This is waaaay sooner than Jayce, like 8 or 9 weeks. You can see him doing the baby roll here, but he's 2+ months older than her. I've heard you're not supposed to compare girls to boys because they hit these kinds of milestones quicker, but still.
On a completely unrelated side note, how incredible is technology? I took this with Chris' phone, and 15 seconds later it was on Youtube. Fabulous.
When Jayce was around 5 months or so, we had to do the cry it out thing. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for everyone. While we were in the midst of crying it out, I started our blog and wrote my very first post. There wasn't a lot to it, but if you're curious, you can find it here. About a month later, with lots of happy success, I wrote an update going into detail about how many days were involved, how soon we saw progress, what his sleeping patterns were at that point, etc. But a few days after I posted it I started feeling guilty.
Did it sound like I was bragging about my kid? Would this post turn off anyone who read it? Was it too detailed and boring? Was it too personal? Was it too specific? Would it aggravate my friends whose kids weren't sleeping as well as Jayce was then?
I went back and edited that post, removing the details. You know, those detailed, boring, personal, specific, aggravating ones. They could otherwise be known as the interesting, informative, pertinent, helpful ones. That post could now be appropriately entitled, "Here are Pictures of My Kid Smiling in His Crib," because there is pretty much nothing else there.
Now that I have another child, I wish I could look back on those specific details so that I could compare a bit, remember what worked for Jayce and how long it took to get there. Now that I've had this blog for almost 3 years, I have more of a sense of what it means to me and what I want it to be, and one of the things that I want is specific details about my kids and family. In 3 years when I look back at this I don't want to read, "Jayce has been saying the funniest things," I want to know what funny things he's been saying, and so on.
On that note, we have recently had a HUGE success around here with a few little parenting tricks, and I definitely want to remember them in case Hannah starts having nap issues around this time and I am desperate to remember the details of my solution.
The gist of it is, Jayce hasn't been taking naps. They stopped when Hannah was around a month old. At first he would just skip a nap a few days a week, but recently I've been lucky to get 1 nap a week for him.
I thought that I could at least count on him to nap on the days that he had school in the morning, but this isn't the case. He would come home very tired but still not take a nap. Apparently some kids can stop taking naps around age 3, but Jayce isn't one of those kids. He gets whiney and uncooperative, or more wound up as the day goes on and becomes almost uncontrollable. I tried to allow "rest time" instead of "nap time," hoping that if he'd stay in his bed then he would fall asleep. But a few books at rest time turned into emptying his whole bookshelf. Books turned into toys and games, and eventually this time turned into "wreck my room time."
There were a few instances where Chris laid down with Jayce just to make him stay put and he fell asleep. Also, Chris rocked him to sleep a few times. I don't mind this on the weekends when we're both around, but I can't sign up to do this every day and just leave Hannah for an indefinite amount of time.
Luckily we have a parenting guru in town, she teaches the parenting classes at our church and always encourages everyone to call her if they have any questions. I should have called sooner, but I saved my questions up a bit, and called with a short list of things to do with Hannah and Jayce, and nap time was at the top.
Her name is Jan. Her and her husband have taught the Babywise/Prep for Parenting line of classes for over 20 years at our church. It is so helpful to talk to her because there is rarely a situation that she hasn't already come across in that time period. She always has a little game plan or list of things that you can implement, and that's just what I want. Plus she's great to vent to and always very affirming.
I told her about nap time, briefly. That I couldn't get him in his bed or to lay down on most days. Sometimes I can't even get him to stay in his room, and time out/removing toys/spankings weren't working.
Her suggestion:
#1. Stop giving him options throughout the day.
Think about your day. For breakfast: Would you like Cherios or Cornflakes? Orange juice or milk? Red cup or blue cup?
So I thought.
Do you want your blue blankie or your rocket blankie? Do you want to walk or ride your bike? Do you want your sandals or your running shoes?
Okay, yes, we give him lots of options.
I was skeptical of this at first and wanted to re-state my question. "Sooo...if I stop giving Jayce options about random things during the day then he will take naps for me?"
She responded that we think we are empowering him by giving him these choices, but a 3 year old already has plenty of decisions to make on any day simply regarding his play. He won't understand why he has a choice about so many other things throughout the day but not about his nap time.
Okay, deal.
Regarding him not staying in bed.
#2. Set a timer.
Call it "quiet time" instead of nap or rest time since he already has something negative associated with those.
Tell him that during quiet time he has to lay down in his bed and be very quiet so that he can listen for the timer to go off. When the timer goes off, he can get up.
She also said that the first few times I may want to set it for a shorter amount of time and not count on a nap. This would get him used to the whole timer idea and set him up for success.
To my complete and utter amazement, this has worked like an absolute charm.
After lunchtime, we do just as she suggested and he naps. It has worked for 5 out of 6 days which sure sounds like success to me.
At first I made a big(ish) deal that we weren't going to have nap time or rest time, but were doing something different that day, quiet time. I explained the rules. I let him help me turn the timer and set it on a shelf, then I walk by and quickly crank it up to 55 minutes or something like that. (I'm pretty sure she did it somewhere outside of the room, but for now it's still in his room.) At first he started to get up a few times and I quickly reminded him, "Shhhh...you have to be quiet so that you can listen for the timer!! ...This isn't rest time it's quiet time, so you have to get in your bed. When it goes off you can get up and we'll play." Then I leave.
The first day Jayce didn't sleep, but he did stay in his bed for about 40 minutes which was heavy progress. He got up once for the bathroom and another time for something legitimate. I noticed that he was getting fidgety so I turned the timer so that it would go off, and we went downstairs to play. Every other day since then he has fallen asleep.
Apparently, as I had suspected, he IS still very tired and needs his naps. This is the little trick that gets him to stay in his bed long enough to fall asleep and I'm holding tightly to it.
Also worth mentioning, once he has been quiet for 15-20 minutes I go sneak a peek at him. If he's sleeping, I sneak in and grab that timer so that it doesn't go off and wake him up. But one day I forgot about it, it went off in his room, but he didn't even wake up.
Poor sleepy kid.
Happy happy mom.
Linking to Picture Me Imperfectly.
We have finally made the bedtime transition around here to a big boy bed. I know that a lot of Jayce's friends had already moved into big beds by now, but we waited a little longer because there really wasn't a need for it yet. We were told to move him 1.) if he was being nighttime toilet trained (which he's not), 2.) if he was trying to climb out of the crib (which he never did), or 3.) if there was a new baby on the way who needed the crib. This was what pushed us to do it now. We were waiting until a bit closer to the baby's arrival as well so that there wouldn't be a big crib in the "not yet transitioned" nursery / my work room, so now that we're getting the nursery set up it's the perfect time.
I found this great wooden toddler bed at a thrift store last year for $8. It was in great shape, but didn't have the hardware included. I didn't think it would be too big of a problem to track down the right screws and bolts, so I bought it and it has been sitting in the basement waiting for us. When Patsy was in town we tried to set it up to get Jayce's room all ready. Little did we know the ridiculous wild goose chase we were starting.
If you ever are in a situation like this, do not buy the crib or toddler bed that has no hardware, because no one can sell you any. We spent one morning going to a half a dozen different hardware, furniture, and specialty stores looking for the right stuff. I was wrong about needing some screws and bolts, you need special furniture screws with special screw thing-ys to screw into the bottom. No one had any, but they all recommend another place that would definitely have them. We eventually came full circle, with the last place we went recommending the first place we had gone. I even called a few places, but everyone was all, "Yeah...hmmm...I don't know...no, we don't carry those." Me: "Can you order them?!" Them: "No because...(some excuse that I found to be dissatisfying.) In the end we just went to Walmart and bought a new toddler bed. Patsy and I spent 2 hours assembling it and were glad to just be done with the charade and finally have the bed ready to go.
When Chris got back into town, he took apart the crib and reassembled it in the nursery. Jayce was helping at first,
but that didn't last incredibly long. There was a mattress to jump and play on, and in the end that was much more interesting.
After the crib was out, Jayce ran into his room and said, "Look Mom, my crib is gone! It's in my sister's room." This made me sad. Even though I'd been telling Chris/harassing him about needing to make the crib to bed switch for a little bit, once it was done I really just wanted to put everything back. I did not cry, which was sort of an accomplishment given the current state of pregnancy hormones and everything, but I was sad all night. But our little girl is coming soon and will need a crib to sleep in, so I'm glad that we're a little closer to being ready for her now.
As for how the transition has gone, I am thrilled to report that it has been an absolute piece of cake. The first night after I put Jayce to bed, I went downstairs and picked up the video monitor to see him swing his legs over the bed, stand up and take a few tentative steps forward. In my most firm mom voice, I called, "Jayce, get back in your bed," which startled him and scurried right back in. Other than this, he has never gotten out of bed. I think we lucked out, and he is one of those kids who just doesn't realize that he has a newfound freedom. He has never tried to get up to play with toys or leave his room, and still stays in his bed and calls for me when he wakes up in the morning and from his naps. I'm glad, I actually prefer it this way.
The only small hiccup is that 3 nights out of the first week we found him sleeping on the floor beside his bed in the middle of the night. He is one of those kids who constantly turns like the hands of a clock while he's sleeping, so I guess he just wasn't used to there not being bars to keep him in his bed when he was laying the wrong way. Luckily, the bed is only about 6 inches from the floor and we have thick soft carpet, so I don't think he ever woke up when he fell. It was more like he slid off the bed onto the carpet, and just decided to stay there. I still check the monitor a few times a night when I'm up for a potty break, and this past week he's been in his bed every time, so maybe he's getting used to it now.
Overall I can't complain. I was a bit worried, especially with Chris being out of town so much, that I would wear myself out going upstairs to try and coerce Jayce back into bed multiples times each night. But it went so well that it might have given us the confidence boost that we need to start up potty training again. Or we'll just celebrate this victory for now and ignore potty training a little bit longer.
Here are a few of my favorite recent Jayce quotes: They fall into a few different categories of being funny, and I couldn't help myself but to organize them this way, especially since it's a longish list. Enjoy. :)
Funny little sayings that seem too old to come out of a little mouth.
To a book that he ran on top of, and took his feet out from underneath him. Shaking his finger sternly,
"Hey book! You be nice! Not slip Jayce!"
After I changed him from pj bottoms to pants:
"That's great Mom."
To a house that we drove by with Christmas lights still on outside.
"A not Christmas time, people!"
To Chris,
"Dad, not talk. Just listen."
"Mom, I washed my hands, just like you showed me."
Me, to Jayce in the other room: "Jayce, what are you doing buddy?"
Jayce: "Uuuuuuum...I just kidding Mom." (I ran in there after getting this response.)
Sayings that are almost there, but not quite.
After I changed the radio from a commercial to a station with music.
"Persect Mom. This one is persect." (perfect)
At Target, where I was reading the specs on various crib mattresses:
"Ooooh, that is sooo interest. Mom, that is very interest."
To me, every day.
"Yes sir, Mom."
Correcting.
He also corrects us, especially me since I'm home with him all day, and I'll just go ahead and blame pregnancy brain for my habit of often saying the wrong thing.
I forgot the name of Snoopy (from Charlie Brown) and accidentally called him Scooby. This has become the pinnacle of my stupidity for Jayce. He brings it up often and laughs like it's completely ridiculous.
"Mom, not say Scooby Doo. It's Snoopy, Mom. Mom's so silly. (laughing) Mo-om! Not Scooby Doo Mom, it Snoopy Mom. You said the wrong thing..."
Me, as I'm putting my socks on: "We'll go as soon as I get my shoes on."
Jayce: "Mom, those are not your shoes, those are your socks. Mom, you said the wrong thing. Silly Mom. Mom, one time you said Scooby Doo. It's not Scooby Doo, it's Snoopy Mom..."
Me: "Do you want to watch that show with Baboo?"
Jayce: "No Mom, not Ba-boo, Ba-du!"
(I was actually a little impressed that he corrected my b into a d, since it's such a minor difference. And when the show came on, he was right.)
To himself, while cleaning up his room.
"I put my little books in my big box. Wait a minute. In my little box."
"Mom, I not a very big boy yet. I still a little bit little."
I agree. Sniff.
Starting on Sunday, these things became a major part of our day.
Also, these were introduced. Yep, potty training, here we are.
The royal throne, complete with books and a little rug to keep cold toes warm.
And a fun variety of cute big boy pants and Buzz Lightyear Pull Ups.
We started Sunday after church, so it was only a half day attempt. It was relatively successful. Nothing happened in the potty itself, but with the timer set to go off in 15 minute intervals, Jayce would race in, and actually sit on the potty (which he had been refusing to do before.) With the cotton pants on he would realize when he had gone (as opposed to with the Pull Ups), and would tell us when he was wet, so this awareness on his part was a small accomplishment. The first time that we took him to the potty and he was dry, he said, "Mom! Not yucky! All clean and dry!" So I thought his excitement and recognition of this was a small accomplishment as well.
Our first full day was not great. Jayce woke up grumpy and disagreeable, so everything was an issue. It was a bad day to try to get him to do something new, and so he didn't. He ran in the other direction when the timer went off, slunk to the floor when I tried to take off his pants, wouldn't sit on the potty, wouldn't stay on it when I put him there, and wouldn't let me put new pants on him, and stopped telling me when he was wet. He didn't care about his M&Ms or any other fancy incentive. I tried many approaches: I was casual, I was stern, I disciplined him, I played with him-none worked.
He whined, he cried, he kicked, he smacked me. I was tired, my back hurt, I texted Chris enough that he came home a little early and I ran away (upstairs) and let him take over.
But Jayce was great for Chris, he had none of the problems that I'd been having.
I'm hoping that this is a bit like that horrible week of letting your kid cry it out at nap time or bed time: It is really horrible for that week, but you notice a big improvement/complete change by the end of the week. Right?
In the last few months Jayce has started pretending a lot. In the above picture, he is a bunny rabbit in a cage, obviously.
He often is a Jayce kitty, crawling around on the floor, meowing and speaking in a high "kitty" voice. This transformation often occurs when we're trying to get him to do something, like come eat dinner.
"Jayce, come here and get in your seat so we can eat."
As he crumbles to the floor, "No Mom, I a Jayce kitty. Meow, meow."
I often find myself saying things like, "Jayce, don't forget, kitties go down the stairs feet first." It sounds a little funny when it comes out, but it works.
He is often a lion, or a dinosaur. If he is a lion, then he demands that we all be lions, chasing after one another from room to room. But this is only when dad is home. Apparently you can only play "lions" as a trio.
The other day, he was sitting in his chair while I fixed him a sandwich. I glanced up at some of the high pitched "pretend" talking, to see him holding his 2 index fingers up like they were talking to one another.
"A doin', man?" one finger said to the other.
"I go over there." it said.
"No no, a not nice! Sit down right there!"
"I sorry."
He then glanced up and saw me watching him, smiled guiltily and stopped playing. I wanted to ask what the first finger had gotten in trouble over, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have told me. I'm loving this new imagination phase. I know it will only get better.
It seems that my little family blog has been neglected lately. Sorry!!! It's not for a lack of things to say, I actually have plenty, I've just been busy doing instead of writing lately. But I am attempting to rectify that a bit this week, and for today I'll be turning to Tiffany's tried and true method, 5 for Friday.
1.) I made Jayce this great little desk last week! I love it! I put it on Lemon Tree Creations on Monday, which you can see here if interested. I discovered last week that my mom and sister never check the LTC site because they know that I sometimes refer to a project that I've done over there on here, and they don't want to check both sites. There were a few other times while I was with them when I would refer to something on Lemon Tree and they'd be like, "Wait, is that the Blues and Branches thing?" Apparently a family blog, a creative blog, and an etsy site are just too much to keep track of individually, so I need to pool them all here. :) Love you Mom and Chels.
2.) Jayce has started saying that things are cute, and it is cracking me up because not only does he say it at the at appropriate times, he says it in that kind of high-pitched inflection that you would use if you were calling something cute.
"Momma's beads. Cute!", at my necklace.
"Baby. Cute!"
Also, this week I was trying on a few dresses for an upcoming wedding. Jayce was playing, stopped and looked over at me and said, "Momma's pants. Cute!"
I stared at him for a second, trying to decode what he was talking about, until I realized that the word "dress" probably wasn't a part of his vocabulary yet.
"Oh, Mom's not wearing pants buddy, this is a dress." I said, grabbing at the dress' hem.
"Dress. Cute." and then he went on playing.
I don't know where he learned that! I'm impressed that he seems to get that necklaces, babies and dresses are things that could be classified as cute, but doesn't think that sidewalk chalk or trains fall into that category as well.
3.) Have you ever heard of the book, Let Me Hold You A Little Longer. I haven't read it, but read about it on my friend Page's blog. It is written by a woman who observed how she spent so much time celebrating her children's firsts, and was often unaware of the last time that they would do something in particular. I didn't read the book on purpose, because, well, it sounds adorable but also incredibly sad!! I don't want to think about that!
But I have been, especially these last few weeks. Since we took away Jayce's pacifier, I obviously knew when the last time he was going to use it would be, but I didn't know that it would be the end of many other parts of his bedtime routine. He used to have a whole list of things that he would ask for at bedtime, starting with the 2 most important, bear and paci, and then would run down the list as we were taking him up to bed and putting him down. Bear, paci, 2 bears, blankie, 2 blankies, shoulders (he wanted to be covered by the blankies, not just have them), light, fan. It was almost a little bit of a game to see if we would remember everything before he reminded us about it. But now the whole system has been thrown off, and most of those items, including the bear, are thrown out of the crib in protest when we put him down.
He also won't let Chris sing to him when they rock together. Even if Chris just starts to hum lightly, Jayce will say, "No Dad." It's funny, but sad.
He has stopped saying "Uh-huh," and emphatically bringing his head up and down when he wants to affirm something, and instead sweetly says, "yes" with a very distinct "s" sound. It sounds so formal and cute, we love it, but are sad about the end of "Uh-huh."
4.) Jayce has started thanking me, unprompted, for a little bit of everything. It happens several seconds after I've handed him his drink, or helped him with his train tracks, or put on his shoes. It's almost as though I help him in some way, he thinks about it for a second and then realizes how much he appreciates me and wants to let me know.
Now I know that's not what is really happening, it just seems that way.
"Fanks, Mom." he'll say, looking over at me sweetly or as he walks out of the room. It still surprises me a little bit every time, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
5.) The potty. The one thing that I have been told the most about potty training from my doctor, the parenting classes, and my friends is, "Just wait until they're ready!" I don't want it to become a discipline issue, or a power struggle issue, and if he isn't ready anyway then I'll just make myself miserable and exhausted in the process. So I've been waiting for him to show an interest, as advised, and we haven't talked about the potty in months. Last week, I was surprised when Jayce suddenly announced to me that he needed to do the thing, I put him on his little potty and he did it. The big thing. (Trying to avoid potty talk, even though this is about the potty.) A week later he did it again.
I'm at a bit of a loss here, because I feel like this snuck up on me. Should I reward him? He is doing it by choice now, so if I add an M&M incentive, is that going to throw things off? He also seems a little bit shy/embarrassed about it, which is probably normal. Afterwards, I tried telling him "Thank you for going in the potty" and "Mom is really proud of you" but he was not interested in hearing it at all. He also didn't want to tell dad about what he'd done, even when Chris responded the same way as I had. What gives? What should I do? Leave him alone? Talk to him more about it? Start full speed ahead into training now that he seems to have "shown an interest?" I really don't know, so just tell me. Please.
I told you a few weeks ago that the giving up of the paci was imminent. So, almost 2 weeks ago, we did it. I wish I had thought to take a few pictures, but I did not, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit on this one.
When it was getting close to bedtime, I informed Jayce that he wasn't going to be able to take his paci to bed that night, that his paci was broken and we were going to have to throw it away. I had thought that this little preparatory talk might help things, but he also might ignore me and just keep playing, but it actually stopped him in his tracks, his little sad lip came out and he came over to me for a hug.
Since it seemed like he did actually know what I was talking about, I decided to just get rid of it then and get the process going. I went and got his paci, clipped the end off and brought it into the room to show him.
Me: "Look, it's broken."
Jayce: "Mo-om, fix?"
Me: "Nope, I can't fix it, it's broken. We're going to have to throw it away."
Jayce: "Blue paci?" (He had 2 pacis, this was the white one.)
Me: "No, the blue paci is broken too."
Then this happened.
The sad, sad lip and eyes full of tears. Genuine sadness. He came over to me for a hug and buried his head into my shoulder. I snuggled with him and told him that it would be okay, but that the paci was going to have to be thrown away. I tried to get him to throw it away himself, but he refused, only giving it back to me and then keeping his head on my shoulder.
That night, it took him a while to fall asleep, but he never brought up his paci at all. I guess he understood the whole concept of it being broken and gone. But it did take him a while to get himself settled down and to fall asleep. It was much like when we were first doing the sleep training with him, the whole "crying it out" to get him to be able to fall asleep by himself in his crib. Now he just needed to figure out a way to get himself settled enough to fall asleep.
I had not anticipated him responding like this at all! I kind of thought that he would throw a bit of a fit when he couldn't have it, and sit in his bed and call for it, the way he used to when he would accidentally lose his paci when he was still awake. He almost responded as if I had told him that his friend had died or something. Even though that sounds pretty dramatic, I guess that from his perspective it kind of was like that. It was the thing that comforted him when he was sad, and soothed him into sleep every day and night. No wonder he didn't want to throw it away!
But the whole sleep thing is getting better. As we had anticipated, it was better by the end of the week. It's still not great, and the fact that it takes him longer to fall asleep at naptime and bedtime has pushed his time of waking up in the morning forward as well. We're still getting adjusted, but we'll get there eventually.
Last week, this little baby
turned into this big boy.
I am okay with it. Last year was different, that whole "my first baby's first birthday" thing, and also the transition from referring to him as a baby to referring to him as a toddler. I didn't like that one bit. But him turning 2 feels right because he has seemed like a 2 year old for a while now, I've just been waiting for the day to actually arrive.
I've decided that instead of listing out all of his 2 year old statistics, I'll just list out a few of the things that we want to remember about him at this age/stage. (Is there really a difference? Perhaps the difference is only in my head.)
-A month or so ago, there was a big fire in town, I think it was a house (not sure, really need to read the paper more.) Anyway, we were out for a wagon ride and suddenly there was a huge black cloud of smoke on one side of town and several firetrucks went zooming by. Jayce was still not really talking much at the time, but I showed him the smoke and he obviously heard the firetrucks. This event really sticks out in his mind for some reason, and it is the first real instance of him telling us a "story" over and over. Every once in a while, Jayce will walk over to the window, point outside in the direction of that house, and say "moke!" looking back at us for affirmation. Once we've agreed, "Yeah, there was smoke out there," then he'll move on. "Outside. Hot. Weee-ooo, weee-ooo (the firetruck). Fire." Somewhere in there, he'll pause and blow, like he's blowing out candles. The funny part is that the words are not put together in a sentence, they are each a statement about what happened. I know that in a few years (or in one year, not sure how that goes), this would become one of those rambling little kid sentences, "Hey Mom, remember that one time when there was a fire and lots of smoke and all the firetrucks went by and their sirens were on and..." It is kind of fun to get a sweet abbreviated little preview of what is to come.
-Last week the weather was beautiful and we spent as much time as possible playing outside. On one day Jayce tripped 3 times and scraped his knee a little more each time. When I was loading him into the car that afternoon he was telling me about his boo boo (saying boo boo and pointing to his knee), I nodded sympathetically and said, "Aww, do you want mom to kiss it?" and leaned forward to plant a little kiss on his knee. He then promptly leaned forward and kissed his knee himself. Yesterday he kept showing me a spot on his finger, saying "boo boo" and then kissing it, which apparently now go hand in hand.
-Jayce has a Noah's Ark puzzle, and since Noah is the prized piece, he often goes missing. Whenever we lose something in the house and are looking for it, we usually call for it. I think this originated with Jayce looking for Chris one time, but we do it with items that can't call back about where they're hiding, like bears, pacis, shoes, etc. Anyway, this week we were at the post office and Jayce was sitting up on the countertop while I filled out paperwork to ship a package. I was really aware of the line of people forming behind me and trying to rush through the form, so when Jayce turned to me and said "No-nah," I didn't pay much attention. I scooped him up and headed out the door, right past a man with white hair, a white beard and wire rimmed glasses. I'm just glad Jayce didn't point.
There was something else that I was thinking that I HAD to include, but it is eluding me at the moment. Stay tuned.
And happy belated birthday to my big boy.
When Jayce was about 10 weeks old, I went to meet up with a few friends for coffee. It was the first time they had ever met Jayce and they oooo’d and ahhhh’d appropriately over him. As we were discussing parenthood, (one of them had a 4 year old), I told them about how Chris and I had been recently discussing how this age, 10 weeks, was our favorite, and we didn’t want Jayce to get any bigger than this because this age was so fun.
It’s funny for me to remember that conversation now, with a 20 month old, and try to recall what Jayce was doing then that was so much fun. I think it mostly had to do with how he was interacting with us so much more than he had been previously: smiling, cooing a lot, doing that sweet baby jabbering and still being a happy little snuggler. It didn’t hurt that he was a really easy baby in the first place, and we were probably just starting to feel confident in ourselves as parents.
Anyway, I remember making this comment and then looking up at them with pleading eyes, in that “please comment on my comment” sort of way that you do to lure people into a conversation. My one friend smiled and reassured me that I had a lot of fun ahead of me. I don’t remember everything that she said, but I do remember her saying that she had had a similar conversation with an older friend of hers, who said that the feeling of “this is the best time,” had continued throughout all of their children’s lives. That even when their children reached the middle school age, they found the awkward and geekyness of that stage to be just as charming and fun as first words and first steps had been. This was really comforting to me for some reason, acknowledging that though the fun of that stage wouldn’t last, there was a different type of fun ahead.
Now that Jayce is startlingly closer to 2 than 1, I can truly say that he is a blast and this is my favorite age. :) Though I didn’t mind the baby phase that some people are dying to get through, I can acknowledge that it certainly is a perk for him to be mobile enough to walk himself into the kitchen to eat, get up the stairs himself for bath time, or (while holding my hand of course) walk with me instead of be carried by me in public.
Some of his fun little nuances I know are common of kids this age, such as how much he likes to help. He helps me load the washing machine even though it is over his head to do so. I give him the lighter items of clothing, he throws them up, and they go in about 75% of the time. The other 25% they fall back down and hit him in the face, but he tries again until they go in. His favorite laundry duty is throwing the wet clothes into the dryer, and he grunts with each item that he throws, even a single sock, because that is what I did when I first showed him what to do. When the clothes are dry he pulls them out, often hitting his head as he reaches to get the ones in the back, but that doesn’t slow him down. If the clothes are still warm, he stops to blow on them, because this is what you do with stuff that is warm, obviously. He then pushes the full basket down the hall to the living room where I fold it, though he often succumbs to temptation and pulls the nearest folded pile onto the floor. But I think that having “help” in 4 out of 5 steps is a success, right?
There is no way that the dishwasher will be unloaded without him. In fact, this activity elicits the same type of excitement as chocolate, so this boy needs to get his priorities straight! Chris grabs the sharp knives first, but then Jayce will quickly pull out each item, handing them to Chris urgently and occasionally laying them on the floor if Chris isn’t quick enough. When he pulls out a butter knife he will tell us a quick “no” as he hands it over. He also unpacks the grocery bags, helps take the trash out to the garage, and gets the little vacuum cleaner whenever he spots a bug or a speck of something and sweeps it up.
In addition to cleaning, he likes to take on little projects. As I type this I am watching him unpack a drawer in the kitchen for the 4th time. It is full of only hot pad holders, tongs and some trivets. He pulls out 2 items at a time, one in each hand, from the right side of the drawer only. He then runs over to the left side of the kitchen, puts each thing in it’s own spot on the floor, and then runs back to the right side of the drawer for some more. Once it is all unpacked, he uses the same strategy to re-pack the drawer.
He is not talking a lot, something that Chris and I become occasionally concerned about. He does lots of animals noises though, and I wonder if we should have spent more time having him say dog, than prompting him with what does a dog say? That said, his sounds are cat, dog, monkey, snake, elephant, lion, cow, owl, fish, chicken, bird, horse, car and train. His only real words are da da, ball, go, go go (go Cards), ba ball, chocolate, cookie, cracker, no, yeah, whoah, wow, and uh oh. Also, there is ga, which is all-encompassing. I am ga some days, grandparents are ga, he yells “ga” down the basement when he comes and before he leaves (to hear the echo). He is adding to this every week though, so I really should stop worrying. Oh well.
I think that the option of cooperation makes this age kind of fun too. You just never know what you are going to get. Some days when his dad comes home, he will happily put on a show of all of his tricks for him, but some days he is just a little too wound up to participate in “show dad how old you are.” I think it will really lose something when he always responds to every prompt. Or maybe that never happens.
He still does sign language for more, please, all done and thank you. The week that we taught him thank you (taking your hand from your chin down) his grandma taught him to blow a kiss, so they’ve been rolled into one. Any “thank you” includes a “muaaahhh” blown kiss. Actually, Jayce initiated a family kiss last month, the sort of thing that I would have been a little embarrassed to teach him, but since he came up with it on his own, I will gladly participate in. Any time that Jayce sees Chris and I kiss, he will run over and demand to be picked up, wrap one arm around each of our necks, push our heads together and then lean in, so that we all kiss at the same time. This is accompanied by a big cheesy grin and of course, muuuaahhhhh.
This is not to say that things are perfect around here, because we are certainly seeing our share of tantrums. Also, these “projects” that he’s into, aren’t all helpful. It’s helpful when he unpacks groceries, but not when he swiftly unpacks a purse or diaper bag. As fun as it is to unpack the kitchen drawer, it is much more fun to unpack a bathroom drawer, and he has his pick of drawers since none of those are baby proofed. The contents of a bathroom drawer are so much more interesting anyway, because once the drawer is unpacked there are additional containers to be unpacked: band aids or medicines boxes, cotton swabs, toilet paper, etc. I am always with him in the bathroom, but sometimes I just let him have his way with the drawer if it is the best way to keep him entertained while I’m trying to get myself ready to leave the house. Plus, the band aids make him so happy that I just let him play. The medicine, not so much.
I guess I just want to make a little note to remember these things by. 2 will be here soon enough, and when I am declaring that it is my new favorite age I want to remember what was so great about 20 months.
