Discovery

After nap today, we went outside for the last of the sunlight. Of course, John wanted to hunt acorns. He's so fascinated by them and always wants to check them out. But today, I wanted to show him some other things in the yard.

I showed him the flowers (mums) that somehow managed to survive the heat of the summer and actually bloomed this week. And he noticed the small purple berries on the Indian Hawthorne. And while he was repeating "berries" over and over again, I managed to drag him over to see the bright red berries on the tall holly-like bush on the side of the house. While we were out in the front yard, Daddy arrived home. I encouraged JHP to show Daddy what we'd discovered in the yard.

As the sun was sinking lower and the mosquitoes were beginning to find us, a jet from the airfield kept circling over head. I'm sure it was just doing touch and go's, but each time it flew right over the house and attracted John's attention. He likes to watch airplanes fly. I thought his shot was pretty cool because if you look carefully in the catchlights of his eyes, you'll see me and some trees, maybe even Daddy.

I forgot to tell a story about bedtime last night. I was rocking John before I laid him down for the night. He asked me to rock him like a baby. After getting comfortable and rocking a short while, he said, "I like it". I wasn't quite sure what he said at first because he had his pacifier in his mouth. So I took it out and asked him to repeat what he'd said. "I like it." Plain as day. This was the first time he's made his opinion known in such a manner. It was kinda cool. I did tell him that he wasn't a baby anymore and that he was a big boy, but that I would rock him like that anytime he asked. More and more he's coming up with things or repeating things we say that sound so grown-up and it always seems to take me by surprise.

-EBP-

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A new high

If you look closely at his lip, you'll see the reason for the second entry on the accident report I received when I picked John up from MDO. He tripped on the playground and bit his lip. The first entry was when he fell and hit the wall after one of his classmates pushed him.

After MDO today, we went to the playground. When everyone else left, John wanted to leave as well. I didn't have much planned to do. Dinner was the crock pot. And it was only 230p. So we headed to a park not far away from school. We've been there before although not too recently. It has several play areas and is usually infested with mosquitoes. But it wasn't today thanks to the cool front that we got yesterday.

Since John's so cautious, he's only now beginning to climb monkey bar type playthings. And he choose a doozy today. He climbed this dome-like bar structure. I was right there with him showing him where to put his feet and how to pull himself forward. But when he'd made it a full two feet above my head, I decided I'd better take some pictures. I guess it was about this point that he discovered how high up he was. And the look of determination you see above changed to fear. I carefully got him down and told him how proud I was of him.

We met a little girl and her mother there that John really enjoyed playing with. She's only about a week older than John. While they weren't so good at sharing at first, they found a common interest in this really sagging bridge (it's built that way). Each enjoyed bouncing on it and each fell off at least once. But no fear, they got right back up. Hopefully we'll see them again at the park as lots of laughs were had.

The evening was quite pleasant and there was only one little tiny outburst of frustration from JHP. And his parents managed to keep it together, too. We have decided to run an experiment. We have been giving John Zyrtec every night before bed. After doing some reading I've found that some kids have some emotional issues while taking it. So, we've decided to take him off it for a couple of weeks and see if the uncontrollable emotions disappear. I expect some at this age, but for such a happy kid, I also expect him to be able to handle not getting his way better than he has been.

-EBP-

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Up and Down

What's wrong with this picture? This is how I found my son this morning - sans shirt. I'm not sure when he lost the shirt, but I know he had it on when I checked on him about 1000p last night. After that, I can't be sure. He might have gotten bored this morning. Or hot. But I was surprised. He hasn't been that helpful about removing his shirt on his own. Maybe he's just holding out on us...

After MDO, we went to the playground. John and I had a good time. We played chase and rode the slides, climbed the ladders and drove the "ship".

And then we went to the grocery like we normally do on Mondays.

And on our way to the parking lot we had to stop and watch the bees collecting pollen from the little white flowers. The bees don't seem too bothered by us and John finds the action fascinating. I did caution him, though, not to get too close.

And all was fine until 513p when Daddy walked in the door and I was thinking about whipping up a cake. The "Hold me! Hold Me!" crying / whining chorus began. But Daddy wasn't good enough. Only Mommy would do. We tried the "Do you need to go to your room?" with John agreeing and heading towards his room. He'd spend a little time in his room with his blankie and paapaa and then would rejoin us only to repeat the whole sequence again. After about 20 minutes or so, he finally got over the need to be held. John and Daddy went to the living room to play until dinner was served a few minutes later.

During dinner, John fed himself his yogurt as he'd fed himself most of his applesauce this morning. And while he was done way before us, he managed to sit and "visit" with us until we were all done with dinner. The rest of the evening went pretty well. We read some books and then it was time for the bath routine. And the "Hold me! Hold me!" chorus was revisited. Since it was Daddy's turn to brush teeth and bathe, the crying escalated beyond control. This was much like it was one day last week. John wasn't happy with his paapaa in the bath. He wanted his blankie and would not understand why he couldn't have it in the bathtub. There was no reasoning with him. He was totally crazy hysterical. He even cried harder when we took the bath towel back to the bathroom to hang up to dry. Totally bizarre. Needless to say, I gave in and rocked him and put him to bed. And he was content. Not even any complaint when I finally put him in his bed. Does anyone have any advice? There's only so much one can handle. We walk the line between being compassionate and holding to our routine so as not to give in to his desires, which I think is the base of the problem. He doesn't get his way, so he pitches a fit. And then he loses all control of his emotions. If this is what 21 months is going to be like. Can we go back or just skip ahead to 24 months?

-EBP-

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