I feel like there is so much to report this month, but we'll see what I can remember. We got through our month without Dan. That was hard at times, but we were really supported with friends bringing meals or providing company. We had lots of play dates and outings. There was always the neighbor girls (13 and 15 years old) who love him and were on summer break from school. I could go on and on, but we were well taken care of, I found a pattern/routine that worked quite well, and the house was clean and tiddy all the time which was amazing! Now Dan is back and the routine is somewhat shaken...
So J's bottom incisors came in the second week Dan was gone and he was much better. I switched to the nuk pacifier instead of the soothie and he doesn't ask for it as much, but he still has it more than I'd like. The top teeth don't show any signs of coming in yet. Hard biscuits/cookies like biscotti helped a lot with teething, but not really anything else.
J is the most polite little boy ever. He is always saying please and thank you and when he really likes something, he'll repeat, "thank you mommy for the _______" over and over. If he's whining I just remind him to use his words and he's pretty good at changing his tone and telling me what he'd like or not like, though he has his moments.
I changed my language a bit concerning negative emotions. I found myself telling him not to cry or not to be frustrated. He'd find something that is impossible to do and insist that it had to be done (like his cheetah ride the horse--like you know what I'm talking about) and I tell him he has to stop crying and stop being frustrated because the cheetah doesn't fit on the horse. Well, this is a hard one for me. I just want to take the toys away, but throughout life we have to learn how deal with the emotions, not avoid them, so we're both learning and I just validate his feelings and try to explain that something doesn't work and go back to his feelings and explain what those feelings are. It's been cool to see him understand more emotions. He's learned a lot from books too.
He is very obsessive lately on certain things such as the animals in the farm that we visited, or praying for the neighbor girls and his BFF, or listening to "Big Rock Candy Mountain" & "Dem Bones". Every time we pray, even after a time out, he yells out, "thank you Jesus for...(the girls' names)". I don't know why those two songs are his favorite, but he's seriously listen to them for an hour. I can't handle it and try to play other music, but he's not always interested and will ask me to turn off the music.
He's learning a lot of bad stuff (reality) from books. He knows what fighting is and bad behavior (that he hasn't experimented with until he learned it) from books...ugh! Even a book about a girl getting up in the middle of the night and waking her mommy. I need to censor my books before reading them. I guess not all kids books are that great...duh me. He started saying, "go away!" quite forcefully the other day and I realized it was in a book. It's harsh to hear. I still can't tell if he knows what it means or not.
He has my food preferences. He took the breading off the fish we had for dinner and ate just the fish, but I guess he was so hungry or realized the breading was tasty, he ate all of it. He eats really well and isn't picky, but it's the question of what he wants to eat. He'll eat most things that I put in front of him, but if I pick the right thing, he'll eat as much as I do, but it always changes.
I have been less patient with him touching my skin for comfort. At least it's warm enough, so my bare arms have comforted him a bit and I'm not "touched out" with him rubbing my arms, but my belly is off limits unless he's talking to his baby brother. He loves to talk, sing, and say hi (by waving) to his brother. He also hugs my tummy and rests his head on my tummy like he's coddling a little baby. He's so sweet.
Oh, one of my favorite things he says now is "race you". I can get him to go anywhere (quickly too!!) by just saying, "race you". He loves to race and I like the speed at which is walks/runs somewhere.
Sleep:
So, my little guy started waking up around 4ish when Dan left and even 3 am many mornings. I would bring him to my bed but he'd keep me up by rubbing my skin until he fell asleep an hour later. I was so over it. I tried to let him cry, but he's a clever clogs and would just cry for me and about getting out of the cot and wanting to be held, etc. until I got him. I tried for an hour once and that was torture on both of us. He needs to be reasoned with the stinker. So, I explained that I'd tell him it was "too early", tuck him in and then he'd sleep until I got him in the morning. It worked, but my adrenaline would rush and then the baby would kick me, so I'd be up all day at 4 am. After a week of that I decided to just tell him on the monitor. Sometimes it worked, other times he'd wake after 15 minutes. I was beside myself. Since Dan has been home, he goes in and tucks him in and he stays in bed for a couple of hours. I don't like this routine, but it's the best we have right now and he's not in our bed until the last hour before we get up. I just don't want him in bed with us when we have the baby because I'm not sure how that is going to go the first few months.
I'll talk about my sleep in my pregnancy update this weekend.
He's just getting big. The neighbor got a load of wood for his fireplace and J actually helped him move it, one piece at a time. I know he was in the way, but I was shocked that he could pick up the logs. He's getting more coordinated. He can actually walk up and down steps, but has to be holding onto something like the wall or rail, but I still get quite nervous. He got some hand-me-downs from a friend that are 2T and I realize I still keep him in his clothes too long. I have to pack up all his 18 months (and some 12 months..shame on me) and get him into all 2Ts. His pants are still tall 18 months unless they have an adjustable waist that I can tighten.
Well, Dan and I just say how blessed we are to have such a precious little boy. He's gentle, kind, polite, smart, clumsy, etc. He is definitely becoming more rough and tumble as of late, or I'm just more sensitive because I'm pregnant, so I've begged Dan to rough house with him even though it's not Dan's thing. He loves to be tossed and chased and tackled. He's also a cuddler and though I snuggle him all day, Dan does most of it when he's home since they both like that kind of thing a lot more than I do...though J is still my baby and I do like snuggles.
Playing keyboard or guitar together and singing at the top of our lungs is the biggest joy I have. He doesn't know the words, but he'll sing what I sing so loudly. They are usually worship songs and I have gotten so much joy from these times. When he "plays" guitar, I'll just sing and he's so intense and sings with me, but quietly.
Lastly, I asked Dan to feel the baby dancing around and J said, "no feel baby, daddy." He did it a few other times and we had to explain to him that the baby is part of the family too. Oh jealousy. I don't know how people prepare for the second kid. I knew J seemed too good about this baby. I hope it still surprises me and that the jealousy will not be too bad when #2 arrives.
Well, like I said, I had a lot to say.
Happy Birthday Megan video. He was saying Megan before I got the camera and then he decided to sing it to himself.
Here is a link to the photo I took of him on "super bowl Monday". We didn't have any plans, so we ate corn on the cob outside while I thought about all the tasty snacks that everyone else was eating. We were also quite warm that day and I thought about everyone tucked into their warm homes while it polar vortexed outside.
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