Midnight Screams!!!

BANG!

It was the dead of night, and the noise woke me instantly.

I must have gone from fast asleep to completely 100% wide-awake in a small fraction of a very fast split second; in this time, I knew what had happened as, just then, it started….

WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Yep, Jack had fallen out of bed at 03:30 in the morning. But not just any bed; Ours, which is quite high off of the floor.  But (luckily/unluckily) I wasn’t in it, so I had to climb out of the spare bed, realise where I was, navigate the piles of junk that we’re in the middle of sorting out, out the bedroom down the hallway a bit and into our bedroom to find Claire trying to calm down the ever-so-slightly upset Jack.

This was not an ordinary night, as the events earlier in the evening were almost trying to tell us.

Around 11:00ish, Jack woke up screaming, and I mean very loudly.  He seems to wind himself up into these screaming, crying tantrums, that it’s difficult to know what to do with him.  He doesn’t want to be picked up, he doesn’t then want to be put back in his bed/cot, you can’t soothe him, calm or anything. Nightmare. I can only conclude that this behaviour must be from his mum’s side.

Eventually, he went back to sleep, but only for a bit, as at 01:30, he’s awake again crying and screaming.  As I was due to go to work the next morning, Claire took over, which was good, as there was extra flappy-arms-screaming-paddy-tantrums when I tried to pick him up; his mum was ok, but not me.  Fine - I went to bed and was soon followed by Claire with a somewhat calmer Jack, but one that didn’t want to sleep in his bed, so she brought him into ours to see if that might help things.

For the record, Jack has never successfully slept in our bed. Ever. Even when he was really small, he only ever slept in his Moses basket/crib/thing or in his cot in the other bedroom.  So, to think that it might work was a bit of a faff. 

Knowing this sleeping situation would not work, I volunteered to sleep in the other bedroom, which was good for me, as I managed to sleep until the 03:30 awakening.  Claire, on the other hand, (bless her) didn’t manage to get any sleep, as Jack would wake every 20-30 minutes and have a bit of a cry, only to be soothed back to sleep instantly by his mum.

Getting up for 06:30 normally isn’t too much of a problem, but that day, strangely, it was…  Ho-hum. Fun and games of having kids, I suppose!

I’ve just added a ‘Tantrums’ category to the blog site… I have a feeling that I might be needing that in future.

There’s a giant in my car!

Claire and I have both suddenly noticed that this little crying ball of poo that we brought home from the hospital has actually grown. Lots.

I noticed when Jack and I were in my car, and he was strapped into his car seat; I looked around and saw that there was now this… child sitting there in the back, and not the shrivelled up baby that I remember being in there once.

Jack says she notices that he’s grown when she lays him on the changing table, as he nearly fills the length of it.

Having said that, he’s not over-big for his size, I don’t think. But his size/height is certainly put into perspective when he’s around other children! Our friends came over a little while ago with their son and daughter, and that’s when I noticed Jack was dinky compared to these older two.

For me, it’s a lot more fun now that he has grown and can do/say more.  Like going to the big play places, filled with padded climbing frames, ball pools, slides and more.  I’ve wanted to go before, and thought about borrowing someone else’s child just for that, but it’s really good that Jack likes it, although I end up sweating and more worn out than Jack does, as I have to constantly chase him around the climbing frames, as he gets easily bowled over by bigger kids running mad around, and to stop him from randomly jumping down great heights.  And to stop him from attacking other kids when they’re playing with something that he wants.  Little monster.

When we’re in the car, he’s much more aware of what’s around him, and can spot a tractor a mile away, even if it’s in a field perpendicular to the road we’re travelling on. “TRAC-TOR!” is what comes shouting from the back of the car!  Good eyes.

Nursery Update

Over the past several weeks, Jack has been getting considerably better whilst at nursery.  Ok, he cries a tiny bit now when we drop him off, but once we’re gone, they say he settles down really well now and actually enjoys playing with the toys, running around etc.

When I went to get Jack from nursery the other day, Tracey said that she was really pleased with how he’s been behaving as the weeks go on.  Obviously, they knew this would happen, as I’m sure that they’ve seen it lots before, but it’s probably more on our part, as when we used to leave Jack at nursery and he was crying, we seem to imagine that’s how he’ll be all day, crying and missing us, etc.  But he doesn’t and it’s more a case of Claire and I getting used to that more than Jack.

A week or so ago, I got there to pick him up after I got home from work, and had to chase him to get him to come home!  That made a bit of a turn-up for the books!

Nursery time!

We have started taking Jack to nursery just a few miles away from our home, and it’s fair to say that he doesn’t like, nor does he want, to be there.

Because of the usual working week that both Claire and I have, we have not needed to take him to nursery before, as Claire, her mum and I share looking after him during the weekdays over a fortnight.  But as we’ve been having him in environments that he’s been comfortable in, we thought he might need to learn to play with other children and get out a bit more, to learn somewhere else than our homes.  Get him out of his comfort zone a little and meet new boys and girls his own age. Plus, it gives us a bit of time to do stuff when he’s not around, so there’s benefits to us too.

The nursery he’s been going to have been really good with him so far.  They’ve changed their shift patterns a bit so that the same people are with him when he’s there, or as they know he’s not too happy, they try to get out the toy that they know he likes, like trains and cars, etc. But he still doesn’t like it, nor does he appreciate their efforts for him.

The first couple of weeks, he had to go for an hour-long ‘taster’ session, and then to keep doing that regularly such that he became familiar with the surroundings, but where one of us would stay during that hour. Then it would be himself for an hour, then four hours, and so on. Unfortunately, they don’t don’t do boarding, otherwise he’d be booked in as mummy and daddy could *really* do with the sleep!!

He’s getting better at going as time goes on and gets older and used to all of it, as in, he doesn’t cry all day now. Just most of it, but that’s progress eh?

He might look small and fuzzy-haired, but little Jack ain’t daft.  Last time I took him, he seemed to know where he was going before we even pulled into the driveway and instantly, the bottom lip came out, tear drops and everything. I thought this was just coincidence, but Claire’s mum said the same thing too, he seemed to recognise the road of where the nursery is even before seeing the nursery and burst into tears.  And before you think, again, coincidence, he doesn’t cry in the car normally; he’ll sit there in the car of the car and look out the window, pointing out things like buses, tractors and the like, so it can’t be that.

I’ve taken him this morning and dropped him off, but clever daddy had a little plan, in that we’d go the other way and come into the road from the top end, rather than from the bypass. Clever eh?  No.  He didn’t get it straight away, but he knew where he was.

Normally, I park out on the road, but this time we pulled into the car-park behind the nursery and he walked in; that is progress in itself, as last time I took him, I had to carry him as he was in his head-back-screaming-tantrum mode, which helps of course. But no, today, he held my hand and walked in, sobbing to himself admittedly but, nonetheless, he walked all the way into the tweenies room (i.e. less than 2 years old but older than a screaming baby). 

I thought I’d stay a little bit, just to help get him started and quickly retrieved the police car, fire engine and the helicopter from the toy box that they set out in expectation of Jack’s arrival, where one of the ladies that work there was happy to try and get his mind off things for him. 

I don’t think he’ll be too bad today, as although he did cry when I said bye-bye, he was pushing the cars back and forth and putting the little driver in his seat in the police car.  Little signs, but hopefully a big message!

I swiftly made my exit and until I shut the car door, I’m sure I could hear him crying.  But he’ll be fine, I’m sure.  If not, it’s them that had to bear his noise all day!! (Evil laugh!!)  Me? I’m off back to bed for the sleep I didn’t get last night because of his crying at midnight thru to 2:30am.

Rugby Tackles Galore

This weekend, we went down to Bath for a 1 year old birthday party, for Claire’s friend’s daughter, Lara.

The whole day was great and Jack was being very well behaved for most of it, until the man with the bouncy-castle appeared…!  When they were first allowed onto it, all the children went into shy-mode, not wanting to be the first.  Except Jack.

Not bothered by things like shyness, Jack (with me shortly behind him) went bounding towards this inflatable land.  I didn’t know what he would make of it and so I climbed onto the bouncy castle too, just to help, of course.  We started to bounce around and then one tumble after another and suddenly, it was filled with children that arrived from nowhere.

To put things into a little context, Jack was certainly one of the smaller children there that day, and was easily knocked around by the bounces that the other kids were putting out. He spent most of the time on the floor, struggling to regain his footing, and this is where he decided that he needed a little help.

So, the most logical thing for a 19 month old child to do, is to hold something that might appear stable and secure. Namely, another child by the scruff of their neck! Needless to say that the other child, an older girl in the first instance, didn’t appreciate this and began crying by the time I made it over to them.

Jack didn’t see the problem in this, and although it did seem quite funny in a naughty sort of way, I knew the girl’s parents would be on-looking and so I had to do the ‘say sorry, Jack’ bit.  The girl looked at Jack as if to say that Justice had been done and that he really saw sorry for his actions, especially as Claire’s standing at the foot of the castle telling me to tell Jack to say ‘sorry’.

In reality, Jack is 19 months old and has no concept of ‘sorry’ or other people’s pain, as kids of that age don’t.  All the while that I am ‘telling him off’, he’s got a big cheesy grin plastered across his face, as throughout this little chat, he’s being bounced all over the place and is quite enjoying it.

Sadly, this wasn’t a one-off, and it soon evolved into Jack taking a dive into a little boy as a result of a bounce from another older boy, taking them both to the ground.  Once on the deck, Jack remained clinging to his new buddy, holding firm for whatever reason.  Again, I had to step in, but by this point, I had already retired to the sidelines because of the amount of kiddies throwing themselves around like loons on there. 

Again, I had to go through the motions of ‘telling Jack off’ for his actions, but he didn’t really get it, and wasn’t ‘sorry’.

I’d like to think that the other children got motion sickness, or simply bored, of the bouncy castle and retired one by one, but I think Jack’s assaults on them may have had an impact. But he was like a little hit-man, taking a different child down each time, so it wasn’t like he was bullying any one child in particular…

Garden sprinkler + baby = very wet baby!

Simple maths, I know, but a combination that was very funny to watch!

We’ve had grass put down in the garden and so we’ve got the garden hose out to water it (lots) and last night after I got back from work, Claire had let Jack outside to play before his bath-time and he had wandered over to where the sprinkler was spraying water.  It’s probably worth noting here that he was only wearing his white baby vest and a nappy (of course, as Naked Toddlers Make a Mess!)

As he’d be poking around with the sprinkler, the direction of it changed and he caught a bit of the spray.  As I mentioned in the Confidence++ post, he’s getting more and more brave and so kept going back for more, despite being ‘bitten’ by the sprinkler!

At one point, he was leaning almost directly over it looking downwards at it whilst the sprinkler sprayed off to one side, and then as it came back, he copped a real eye-full and was almost instantly drenched.

At this point, Claire was sitting on the doorstep laughing whilst I was trying to get a £250 prize by capturing it all on the video camera! (Hmm, one day maybe I should actually submit that to ‘You’ve Been Framed’!)

The end result was a very soggy Jack – standing there in his now see-through vest, dripping from head to toe in cold tap water!

Although the weather outside was still quite warm, he started shivering until we wrapped him up in a big bath towel and whisked him off inside.  But, you can see that he was absolutely enjoying himself by the big beaming smile plastered all across his little face.  And that he whined when we brought him in! Kids, eh?

Confidence++

Jack is getting more and more confident as time goes on. I know that’s pretty much a given, but it’s the effect on him that makes us both smile.

For example, before, he could crawl - but if we were to hold his hands, he’d walk.  Then, as he got a bit more sure of himself and obviously a little stronger too, he started to walk and realised that it’s an improvement on crawling and so gained more confidence in himself and his abilities.

Now, not only is he running, but he’s also walking backwards and playing on it too.  When Claire or I chase him around the house, he’ll respond more like a little boy by trying to duck  or dodge the attack.  Sounds like an obvious thing to say, but I think it shows that he’s learning to use these new fangled ‘muscles’ in different ways.

Not only the walking/running thing, but also in his general being – him being more confident means that he’s developing more and more of his own character, expressing himself to others about what he does and doesn’t like and more importantly, what he does and doesn’t want to do.

It’s a bit difficult, as able to tell us what he wants, possibly as a result of the baby-sign classes that Claire has been taking him to, but he’s not at that point whereby you can argue with him or bribe him properly, which is what I’m looking forward to next.

Jack and Alfie (the resident Westie) are also getting on a bit too well as a result of Jack’s confidence; possibly, that should be ‘over-confidence’ in that respect, as Jack is happy to play with Alfie (and vice versa) but Jack doesn’t yet understand that there’s a currently-unreached limit with any animal, that has certain consequences. 

To be entirely fair to him, Alfie is absolutely brilliant with Jack.  Sometimes Alfie doesn’t want to be around him, which is fine, but then other times, he does and can sometimes get a bit boisterous with his playing.  He can grumble and growl a bit whilst doing it, but the intention is not to bit or anything, but little hands coupled with very soft skin against the dog’s teeth is going to make marks one day.  We’ll see. All good fun though.