This last month was a challenge; and I think that I am using that word in a subtle way. There were a lot of struggles. And I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of glad that it is over.
With the transition out of the crib and onto a mattress on the floor, the timing is everything. In my opinion, it's best to do this when the child is young enough that they can be trained to stay in bed (not argue with you), but also at a point where they are not going through any other major changes (night terrors, sickness, etc).
Unfortunately, at the exact time that we transitioned Jack, he began fighting a cold that later turned into a rotavirus infection. Between the coughing/lack of sleep/overtiredness/clinging to momma ... well, it wasn't a totally smooth transition. And so began a vicious cycle of him crying out for me in the middle of the night.
I was torn on what to do -- let him cry it out, remove a nightlight, add a nightlight, go up and soothe him ... The best thing is to simply pick him up (once he comes out into the hallway) and without saying anything, place him back in bed, cover him up and leave. He usually goes right back to sleep.
At this point, he usually gets up once in the middle of the night -- I always hear him -- and I follow the procedure above. Then, he sleeps until about 6 am. Sometimes I can get him to go back to bed for another 30 minutes or so. If not, he gets up and plays while I am getting ready for my day. I am finding that he just likes to be up by that time of the morning. He is well-rested and happy.
He takes one good nap in the afternoon from 1 pm to about 3:30-4 pm. Sometimes he will fight me a little when it is time to get tucked in, but after a couple of books and a song, he falls asleep within 15 minutes. Some days, he will fall asleep in my arms while I rock him by 12:30 pm. It's hard work playing hard for 6 hours straight!
Here, he came downstairs after a short nap, climbed up in the chair and fell asleep. You can tell from his red cheeks that he was sick.
Jack is working on brushing his teeth. He loves the idea of it -- pulling up the stool, putting the water and toothpaste on his brush, actually putting the toothbrush in his mouth, spitting -- but he is not very efficient at the process, obviously.
And he is not willing to let us help without putting up a fight. We are working on giving up a little of his independence.
Jack tries to do everything that his big sisters are doing and that includes using dry erase markers on the easel. The girls are often not willing to give him the space to draw on it, so he is usually on his own with a miniature version of the floor, creating his own masterpieces.
Jack loves washing his hands and that is a good thing, especially with all of the germs that filtered through my house this last month. He knows that he needs to wash his hands before every meal and whenever he comes back inside from playing outside.
The temper tantrums that Jack throws are vicious. I never went through this with the girls; they seemed to skip the Terrible Twos and struggled a little bit with the Terrible Threes.
Jack entered the Terrible Twos about 6 months ago, and it has surely challenged my every last nerve. Some days, I just have to walk away for a few minutes and regain some composure before I attempt to deal with him. He has very exact ideas about what he wants to do and when, and lacks the vocabulary and patience to demonstrate those ideas.
He doesn't like the word "no," and doesn't like to be told "just a minute." Those things just set him off into a screaming/kicking fit. Usually some time in "time out" on the bench helps, sometimes we have to take things away from him. We are working on it though ... one day at a time.
With the warmer weather upon us (I think!), we will be spending more time outside and this is something that Jack loves. As long as he is occupied and in nature, he is the happiest. He'll be wearing his new summer crocs a lot ...
And burning off any excess energy!
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