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:
Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2005 - (Mamma)
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
A Bad Case of 'Two'
Note added later: We have established that his "bad case of two" was actually a return case of the Coxsackie virus...the hand, foot, and mouth blisters appeared late this afternoon, and the little guy promptly started being much better behaved and happier.
Ahh, yes, our little boy has developed a bad case of "two". He's many weeks early, but it's undeniable.
Part of that, of course, is that he's in pain, both because he's teething in four molars at once (having just achieved his last four incisors) and because he still has the horrible diaper rash he developed back in late January.
The rash comes and goes -- but it can go from completely clear and healthy at one diaper change to screaming red and swollen at the next.
I have finally pinned it down to chronic candidias infection -- something that Rod and I share as well. That gives us an idea how to go about dealing with it.
(For an adult, it's annoying, but once you figure out the drill, it's not much more than that -- but seeing Jack in pain gives us incentive to figure out how to finally get rid of it completely rather than just fire-fighting when we get an outbreak.)
When he was younger, Jack was clingy and weepy when he was in pain. These days, though, he gets cranky and confrontational.
Welcome to "two".
Yesterday was no exception.
We went to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. Now, Jack has walked at the store rather than riding in a cart for months. He knows well to look but not touch, but as we were about to get in line to pay for our groceries, Jack (who up to that moment has been cheerful, helpful, and well-behaved) stopped abruptly in front of a shelf of glass bottles. He glared at me, grabbed one, and throw it forcefully to the floor and then glared at me again.
Fortunately, the bottle didn't break, so I picked it up, put it back on the shelf, and told Jack very sternly that we don't throw bottles. He said something incomprehensible that was clearly meant to be snippy and then glared at me again. He clearly was not getting the message that his behavior was unacceptable so I swatted him on the diaper and told him again that he is to look but not touch in the store.
He burst into loud, angry tears and the noise escalated every time I tried to talk to him. So, I put the basket down and we left without dinner.
At home, it was more of the same with Jack intermittently grabbing things from the table and throwing them across the room and then glaring at me.
But, just to make it all more mysterious, he alternated that sort of behavior with being just as sweet, cooperative, and cheerful as can be.
When he was feeling cooperative, I did my best to find the source of the trouble, but I'm not sure I ever did. We both fell, exhausted, into bed at 9pm.
Poor Rod. he says that this behavior has been typical of Jack for weeks now. No wonder he's been succumbing to every cold or flu that comes his way -- it's exhasting to deal with that level of contraryness relentlessly.
I don't mean to give the impression that we're having no fun at all. As I say, Jack's temperish periods alternate with the brightest, happiest, most cheerful periods I could hope for. The transition is sometimes so fast it gives us emotional whiplash, but the cheerful periods are amazing fun!
As you can see from the photos, Jack's phsyical dexterity has grown immensely. He can now climb most play equipment on his own.
I'm grateful that Jack has developed a deep and abiding respect of danger but doesn't share my physical cowardice. He's very careful, but he isn't immobilized by fear the way I am. That's far better than the other two likely possibilities. He could have been completely fearless, which is very, very hard on Mamma's nerves, or he could have been pathologically cautious like Mamma, which is easier for me, but not so good for him.
Jack is fascianted by running, too. He loves to run, and frequently runs past us crowing "I'm running! I'm running fast!" He is mesmerized by the sight of joggers everywhere we go! We have to stop and watch whenever a jogger goes by anywhere in sight.
His keen observations of life, in combination with the exploding vocabulary keep life (and conversation) very interesting!
He has also been eating like a starved boy again, and seems to be putting the food to work in growing broader, taller, and deeper. He isn't getting chubbier, as he usually does. Instead, his shoulders are broadening, his chest is getting deeper, his legs and arms are getting a lot more muscular, and he's getting a lot taller. All signs of our wee baby are rapidly vanishing.
I'll try to catch pictures of him from the front and not blurry this week. It's getting a lof harder to do that, though! Of course, he also has inherited his Dad's gait and excellent posture. Combined with his newly impressive phsyique, watching Jack strut around like he owns the neighborhood is hilarious. (Except, of course, when it's annoying.)
Metablogging Thanks to everyone who has been dropping by regularly to see if we've added anything new. My work is going better, but continues to be very demanding, and Rod has been under the weather more often than not for weeks now, so there hasn't been much joy to rewards your visits and we appreiate the fact that you stay with us anyway!
And to those looking for smut, please go away! You won't find that on this family oriented blog.
