Looking through the Jan. -March 2008 blogs I am learning that things are different the second time around-- with kids that is. At this age (Luke's current age) Jack already loved to read and have story time in bed. He would pull out favorite books, he would flip through books on his own and try to imitate the growl noises from stories with animals. He was beginning to sign in order to communicate with us. I am not comparing Luke and Jack-- I am comparing me to me. Did I get lazy? Did I stop trying? Is it just easier to put Luke on the floor and say-- there, go bang stuff? Of course it is easier, but is it better? Can I just say it is their personalities and they are just different? That may be partially true, but I am sure I put more effort into making sure that Jack was reading, signing, starting to do basic puzzles, I am sure I was somehow organizing his banging time more constructively, and probably so much more. Oh Luke-- I am sorry.
Though being second has advantages- I mean you get an older brother. Every time Luke sees Jack he just smiles so so big. This will probably mean that in the future he will do better with wrestling, meeting new people, and trying new things. Maybe I am just trying to make myself feel better. Maybe that is ok. Still, I intentionally read 3 books to Luke today. He tried to eat the first two and crawl on my face, but I think he sort of listened to the third one.
Speaking of dear Luke I want you to know that you forget things about this age like-- the child wants to be held constantly!!!!! If I am cleaning-held, if I am getting dressed- held, if I am sitting down-held, if I am doing anything at all- held. I put him on the floor and he just cries. He follows me around until he gets to my feet and then he touches them (this is how he says up please). If I am busy and walk over him then I have just committed the worst atrocity of all time and he breaks down even more. I fear someone will walk by our house, hear crying, and see a mother stepping over her child, ignoring him, and call child services. I do have to get things done so sometimes this is the only way. I sometimes I can get out of it by sticking him in his high chair and giving him food, but then the person out the window would see a baby alone in the kitchen eating with the mother hidden from sight-- probably folding laundry.
Learning to stand up has many advantages, but one disadvantage (for mom and dad ) is the I can now stand up in bed if I don't really want to be in here right now, and I can't get down by myself yet stage. Our perfect new baby has decided sleep is for the birds, add I can stand up in bed now and this equals a baby that doesn't sleep and parents who are grumpy.
He has also added to his list of tricks throwing blankie overboard. This is a good one. The last few days we have noticed that when he wakes up from a nap crying (if you can call it a nap) his blankie has been thrown out of the crib. It leads us to the question which came first? Did you want to get out of bed so you threw your blanket over because you knew if you cried and we saw it there we would get you out? Were you already awake and playing with it when it happened to fall out of your hand causing you great distress thus leading to the crying? Hmm.... Baby?
If you couldn't tell that nap time is a struggle for us let me just bluntly say-- it is a real pain in the arse. Today for example. He was crying when I held him, he was crying when I put him down, he acted like he wanted to nurse, he didn't really want to nurse, so I said naps! I lay him down and minutes later he is crying. This is what I walk in to see.
Fine, Jack already made his way in so we just let them hang out in Luke's bed for a bit.
As you can plainly see-- Luke is obviously exhausted. Look at his eyes! We try again.
Jack takes his nap and Luke just starts a wailing. I ignore this for a quite sometime because he HAS to go to sleep. It isn't stopping, it is not getting better, it has been like 40 minutes, so I go in there and he is just standing up screaming and the blanket has gone overboard. I pick him up bring him in my room, let him crawl for about 10 minutes then he wants to be held. I hold him and he just starts rubbing his eyes like crazy. We try again. As soon as he sees where I am headed he just starts screaming. He is mad. Too bad baby-- you HAVE to take a nap. He cries for a few minutes then silence. Awww-- nice that only took 2 hours. Guess how long he sleeps? 45-50 minutes. GRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1 comment:
I really do think that it's just different - not better or worse. You can't try to make your 2nd kid like a 1st kid. It's totally different. I've done different things right with each kid, and I've done different things wrong with each kid. The beauty of it is that they are all still great kids, just like Luke and Jack!
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