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:
2006-08-16 - 15:20
And the adventure begins
I dithered and hemmed and hawed about television for months. But Jack is nearly three and a half and it was time.
Over the last few weeks, I have bought him several DVDs. Two are about potty training -- there has been absolutely no sign of real progress and Rod and I, while we remain determined not to turn it into a battleground for the time being, are well and truly sick of diapers. Maybe the videos will help move him along toward the idea. I might not be so restless but he remains terrified of the toilet and refuses to even consider sitting on the toilet or a potty seat. Partial training I could be content with, but phobias cvan go on a LONG time.
I also got him a video about African elephants in the wild to add to the Tiger video his niece gave him for his third birthday. He watched the elephant video through once and has asked for short bits of it occasionally since then, but it's pretty intense, with a newborn calf struggling aganst a birht defect and several stillborn calves. I think this one is one he'll need to grow in to.
Finally, his Aussie mate, Connor, gave him a copy of a Play School dvd with several episodes. (Play School is an Aussie childrens program that has been in continuous production for 44 years -- think of a cross between Romper Room and Sesame Street. Quite nice, actually.)
So with five DVDs to choose from, Jack is now watching TV pretty regularly.
The first week was pretty hideous, with him either watching or whining to watch and being totally undistractable and extremely unpleasant to be around. Everything I feared, in short. He would watch for literally hours on end, the same show over and over and over again. Why he didn't get bored, I can't imagine. But as he watched, his mood, predictably, deteriorated and we eventually had to start enforcing time limits on his watching. (With other things, Jack tends to obsess for a few days and then goes back to doing other things. That didn't seem like it was going to work with TV.)
Oh...and no sign of real interest in using the toilet, either.
What have I wrought? (I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it.)
House beautiful
Work on making the house our own continues.
Last weekend, we remade the pantry and hung a large spice rack to contain the massive numbers of spice jars and bottles that had taken over our counters.
We also started the process of hanging decorative shelves to contain the legumes and grains jars, but while the shelves were made and the brackets hung, the trim still has to be attached and the shelves stained and varnished before we can hang them and use them.
Nonetheless, the difference in the kitchen is already astonishing! It's become much easier to clean and much, much easier to cook in. That's especially helpful, because produce season has begun in earnest and we're starting to plan our harvest canning season. (Lots of apple sauce, lots of tomato sauce, and lots of peaches -- and we'll probably add something new, too, though we haven't decided what yet.)
The next project is to paint and decorate the guest room ... Rod's sister, Karen, will be here in six weeks. We're so excited! But we have a lot to do yet. The walls in there are, embarrassingly, still orange. I have chosen a pale blue and yellow, French provincial theme for that room with lots of painted white wood and toile fabrics. Of course, what we have now is an orange room full of boxes that have yet to be sorted. Oh, and it's "the other half" of the craft room, so we'll need a French screen to provide a bit more sense of a separate room, too. So very much to do!
I can't wait!!
"Mamma, are you staying home with your Jacky today?"
Ideally, I get up at 5:30 am, shower, and dress, check my mail, tidy the house for Rod and Jack to start their day, start a load of laundry and a pot of coffee, and have my breakfast before swanning off to work promptly at 8. I am supposed to leave the house at 8am to make it to work by 8:30. My actual start time is 9am, though, and
I can be a bit of a slug in the morning, though, so it's not unusual for me to tumble out of bed at 7:30, dash through the shower and dress hurriedly and then dash off to work with my wet hair flying.
That means that I often am all too often still home, putting on my shoes, when Jack appears at the top of the stairs.
When he finds me there, he invariably asks me "Are you staying home with your budgie today, Mamma?" Meaning, of course, that he is hoping against hope that it's a weekend or holiday. He usually takes it pretty calmly when the answer (which he already knows, based on whether I am dressed for work) is "no".
As I mentioned last time, though, there has been some question whether I would be going off to work today. And so, this morning when he found me dressed for work, he went into "Sarah Heartburn" mode, throwing himself to the floor at the top of the stairs and moaning. When I calmly said something sympathetic but unperturbed and continued to put on my shoes rather than immediately rushing to his side (a game I play when we have time- - but it's clear that it's a game), he crawled down the stairs, threw himself into my arms, and sobbed loudly and dramatically. (And pretty obviously faking.).
He pouted and fretted and curled up in my arms for a few minutes while I smelled his hair and murmured loving nothings to him. When I offered him breakfast, though, he flipped the switch immediately and became cheerful and eager to eat.
My son is a loon!
