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
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Friday, Jun. 17, 2005 - 11:43 A.M.
Back again ...
First of all -- the last couple of weeks have been very hard for Jack. And so, of course, they were hard on Mamma and harder still on Dad!
Jack went into a period of being very weepy, very contrary, and alternating between sad and angry for much of the day. It was hard to come up with anything much to say here on his blog. "He's driving me mad!" was true enough, but not terrible interesting, nor particularly informative. (And I was so busy at work, that for the most part, it was theoretical anyway!)
It was easy to put it down to "Well, he's two."
At first, anyway.
But that just wasn't like our Jack, so I also kept my eyes open for other signs of illness. (After blogging for a while I began to notice a pattern. He'd behave horribly for a few days, and then he'd get sick.) Not this time, though.
And then, Rod was describing Jack's behavior one particular day. It rang a bell -- as a matter of fact it sounded extremely familiar on two counts.
The behavior he was describing was remarkably similar to my younger brother's when he was a child. My mother had long described him as being "a little bear" when he woke up and commented that he always seemed better after breakfast.
Now, we had assumed that because Jack was refusing food, that he simply wasn't hungry. Then it dawned on me. As a diabetc, I sometimes experience hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. One of the most consistent symptoms I have when my sugar is low is that I have extremes of anger or sadness that are totally irrational, and food sounds awful until I actually get it into my mouth. It's so consistent that if Rod is feeling hungry and I'm not, his first question is "when did you eat last".
Rod and I talk about it, and then Rod did an experiment. If Jack was being irrational, Rod just popped food into his mouth instead of offering or asking. Invariably, after another whimper, Jack has then stuffed himself. Rod then started offering Jack food very, very regularly (like, every hour) instead of waiting for Jack to notice that he was hungry and ask for food.
We now have our Budgie back!
I don't know whether the behavior of other two year olds might be related to a metabolic change that means that many of them go too long without noticing that they're hungry, or whether the timing is a coincidence.
Or maybe this bodes ill for Jack eventually developing diabetes, like his mamma and his Pop Jack (paternal grandfather).
Whatever the cause, it's good to have our sunny boy back!
Back again ...
Once he was back on track, I realized that Jack was showing signsd of being ready for chapter books!
This is the fun bit; we go through the endless, endless repetitions of picture books because it is a building block for literacy ("the same book always contains the same story in the same words. There is a pattern here")
But it does become extremely tedious.
Lately, though, Jack had started to ask for book after book and was sitting still for a half hour or more for stories and asking for longer stories one after another a lot more often.
He has also been using much longer sentences all of a sudden. Other than a few parts of speech that he completely doesn't get, he is pretty much using full sentences.
It's time!
So, one day after work, I bundled Jack into the car to go to the book shop. I am woefully in the habit of doing my shopping online (I can shop much more quickly during my luch hour while not forfeiting lunch or losing my parking space, what can I say...) but this seemed to require a ceremonial event.
Jack didn't see it that way. He was asleep before we left the neighborhood. Oh well, I continued on, since I didn't know when there would be another free evening and I thought it likely that he'd wake up when we got to the book shop.
I was wrong about that, too. I carried a sleeping boy from the car to the shop, around the shop while I looked for the books I had chosen (Winnie the Pooh and Paddington the Bear) and the book that Rod wanted (a book of fairy tales that contains Jack and the Bean Stalk -- Jack LOVES the fee fie fo fum line!). I found Pooh and the fairy tales, but Paddington seemed only to be available in picture books and not in the chapter books I read to TJ and Corey.
I carried a still sleeping boy back to the car with my treasures for him clutched under one arm and off we went, home. Jack slept soundly the whole time. He woke up briefly to complain when I changed his diaper and took off his shoes, but he was essentially out for the night!
No books tonight.
(I have to say, though, that there are few feelings more wonderful than standing in line with wonderful new books and a completely relaxed toddler in your arms to be kissed and have his hair sniffed without complaint!)
The next night, after taking our vitamins and brushing our teeth, we added "story time". I read a chapter of Pooh to Jack. The chapter was four pages long. He sat and listened for two pages and examined the line drawings between the paragraphs. Not knowing how long this story might go on -- the book sure is big -- he fidgeted through the third page, and then climbed off my lap to play with his blocks while he listened to the last page. (I could tell he was listening because at one point he came back to look at the pictures again.)
The following evening, when I got home from work, Jack was very intrested in hearing more Pooh.
Hmm.
The idea had been to read a chapter each night before bed. But I decided that although that had been the plan, it was Dad's turn to read the bedtime story, so I agreed to read a chapter of Pooh after we'd nursed.
This time, Jack sat through all four pages watching the book with great interest. Then when we had finished the chapter, he took the book and looked again at the pictures.
Later, at bedtime, he sat still for the entire of Dad's redition of "Jack and the Bean Stalk", too! Dad and Mamma found ourselves discussing the the complex morality of whether it was wrong to steal from someone who wanted to eat you for breakfast...and then it was bed time.
The reading thing is going swimmingly!
I eventually found a second hand copy of the Paddington Treasury and ordered it online and plan to buy the collected works of Beatrix Potter next time we're out. I remember my grandmother reading those books to me, and Jack really enjoys the picture-book version we have of Peter Rabbit.
I am wondering what to read after that, but I suspect that the reason I can't remember many more books on the same level is that TJ and Corey were ready for more sophisticated reading by the time we'd finished those three. Add Dad's reading of fairy tales and Aesops fables and Jack may well be ready, too.
Dad's Administrative Assistant
Rod has been writing for the Ypsilanti Courier for almost six months now.
Originally, the job was supposed to entail attending the Yspilanti city council meeting in the evening and writing it up.
I don't remember whether we thought it was once a week or once a month, but it didn't sound like that big a deal. It was a (very littlea) extra cash in Rod's pocket and it let him get out and make a difference in the adult world without cutting too much into family time.
Now, Rod is a man who takes very seriously any committment he makes. I adore that quality in him, and I consider Jack and I to be extremely lucky that he's made a committment to us!
But it does mean that no job is ever quite as simple as first described once Rod gets his teeth into it.
At first, Rod attended the city council meetings and wrote them up.
Then he started spotting important stories in things that were discussed only briefly in the council meeting, and he started covering those, too.
Some weeks, the Courier has three or four articles with his byline! (Not bad for a small weekly paper!) and Rod is very often on the top of the front page -- that's prime real estate for a journalist!
Now all of this requires a lot of investigation and not all of it an be done in the evenings. So, Mr. Jack has started tagging along as Dad interviews the chief of police, the City Manager, and other Very Important People from around Ypsilanti.
His knee-high administrative assistant softens the otherwise hard-edged approach Dad takes to his job, and generally makes communication easier all around... except, of course, when he is being two... but mostly Jack is charming and very well behaved. He is also an excellent judge of character.
And Jack gets a lot out of it, too. Rod is a lot more socially at ease than I am, and I like Jack having the chance to watch Rod meet and get to know new people on a regular basis. He shows every sign of having my more reserved temperament, but if he can comnbine that with his Dad's social ease, that would be good.
Jack also gets to go places and see things he would ever have reason to, otherwise, and I'm a firm believer that new experiences from within the safety of a parent's company are very important in growing a socially healthy and confident young person.
And the adventures continue.
This is shaping up to be a big year for travel!
At the end of July, Rod, Jack, and I will be traveling to the Delaney Family Reunion near Plattsburg, New York.
We'll be making it a long weekend, leaving on Thursday to pitch camp on Friday morning, and then tearing down our camp on Sunday and traveling back on Monday.
Then, in early September, Rod and Jack will be headed out to Australia, where they will spend three weeks catching up with the Smith family!
Mamma is ambivalent about that! I am excited that Jack will get to go home and get to know his "Mormor" and his brothers, and I know how homesick Rod has been. On the other hand, being without my whole family for almost a month sounds very, very hard.
Finally, in mid-December, we're hoping to get to Sweden again. Yes, so soon! You see, it's going to be a lot harder to get to Sweden from Australia, so I want to get there as much as I can meanwhile -- and since no one sane travels to Scandinavia for the winter holidays, the prices are as good as you'll find all year.
Besides, TJ's other baby brother, Nicky, will be there and it will a chance to get the whole family together for photos. [grin] What an adventure that will be, eh?
Have a great weekend!
