We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 - (Mamma)
OK, I was trying to blog about our trip -- but you know, that is taking way too long. I just don't have much time to blog these days.
So I think I'll go back to quick quips and if I ever get time to write about our trip, you'll be the first to know. ;)
Funny Budgie!
Jack is such a little goofball!
On those rare occasions that Rod and I find a moment to snog (the sort of kissing and cuddling one could do in public, if one lacked dignity), should Jack discover us, he cracks up, and runs between out legs and tries to climb us to "get in on the action". When one of us picks him up, he grabs both of our faces and draws us together to kiss him "in stereo". Then he laughs so hard he almost falls out of our arms -- and he does it again!
It seems that he really, really loves being at the center of all that loving. I refer to it as the "sibling prevention instinct".
Ah, well, it's funny, and in far too few years he'll be "too busy" to cuddle with the old farts and we can go back to cuddling on our own.
The Power of "No"
Jack is homing in on two years old. One major milestone of the two-year-old, of course, is the discovery of the power of "no". Jack has not been slow to discover this. I think "no" is probably his most frequent wordthese days.
We're lucky in that his "no" is usually spoken in a sweet, socialable tone rather than screamed angrily as some children I have known have done at this age. But he does mean it.
We have decided that the best way to deal with it is to believe him when he says "No." If there is no compelling reason, then "No" it is.
As an example, when dinner was ready last night, Rod went looking for Jack to invite hm to the table. Jack was in Rod's office, reading a book, and whenRod asked if he'd join us, Jack said "No. Book." Rod shrugged and joined me at th table. Several minutes later (presumably when he finished his book) Jack joined us at the table.
When there is some compelling reason, we are able to explain to jack why he can't have his way, and usually that works pretty weel. Oh, he doesn't always take it well -- like when he wants to drive Mamma to work in the morning and Dad says "No", that's often a recipe for a tantrum. But we have found that so far, we have been able to avoid the battle of wills that are so often a part of this age. Almost always. Unless yogurt is involved. (Jack would eat yogurt at every meal and snack every day, if we allowed it.)
But you know, his tantrums aren't so bad. Mostly they involve lying face down on the floor and covering his face in a posture of utter despair. A lot of people aren't aware that they're tantrums, but we acknowledge them since we can't see how making him 'work it harder' would benefit anyone. I'm sure he'd be perfectly happy to scream and throw himself around to voice his frustration, if we expected that.
He did experiment with that a bit when we first got home from our trip to Sweden. But we decided to ignore those acts of temper and respond better to his usual tantrums. It took a few days and a couple of explanations that the noise isn't necessary or helpful, but he has gone back to his old method. What a relief.
Hmm. I still haven't managed to completely kick this flu and this post feels rambling and inarticulate. Oh well, I hope you've found somethng entertaining anyway. Maybe next time. ;) Next time, too, I hope to have photos. We've taken plenty of them -- but our home ISP has been so completely unreliable that we haven't been able to maintain a connection long enough to post them to Ofoto so that I have them at hand. We're getting high speed cable Internet on Thursday, so maybe after that.
