Jack @ 30 Months

At 2.5 years old, Jack is desperately seeking to have some control over his life. Pretty standard behavior for his age I assume, and I need to be doing a better job at offering him a couple of choices when I can instead of just issuing commands all the time. We’re in Texas right now, visiting family, and when we told him we were going to Texas on an airplane, we thought he would be really excited to get to ride in one. When he said he didn’t want to go up in the air, we just took it as his standard negative response, trying to assert some control and really thought the plane ride would be fine. Wrong. He was fine sitting in the airplane, and fine when the plane was moving on the ground, but when it took off, Jack went nuts. “I want to go DOOOOWN!” Screaming, kicking and flailing ensued. Mark used to be a flight attendant years ago, and he said he had never seen a kid flip out that badly. After trying to comfort him by rocking him in my seat, and giving him the jellybeans I had brought along for an emergency, and turning on the DVD player, I finally had to take him back to the lavatory. He was fine in the lavatory. He played with the water, and kept trying to push the Flush button, but when I tried to take him back out, he flipped out again. So…. we spent at least an hour and half in there. I am now very familiar with all the accoutrements in an airplane lavatory. FINALLY, he fell asleep and I was able to take him back out and even get him in his seat- he didn’t wake up until we were at the gate.

We changed planes in Dallas, and we even talked briefly about renting a car to drive the San Antonio area, but decided we had to just bite the bullet. By putting on a big song and dance to distract him with everything we had brought along, and by keeping the shade down, I was able to keep his mind off the fact that we were in the air the second time for the short flight, and we praised the Lord that we didn’t have a repeat of the first flight. Unfortunately, Jack reacts the wrong way to Benedryl, or we would be seriously drugging him up for the flights home. Mark suggested a fifth of whiskey, but I have a feeling Jack would be a mean drunk.

I have worked hard not to end up with habits like rocking Jack to sleep for example, but this month he has realized that he likes to be “petted” before he goes to sleep. He lays down and snuggles up with his cloth diaper “night-night” and his bear and says “Mommy, pet me?” in the most plaintive little voice that I don’t mind if we are in a new bedtime habit. I rub his tummy and stroke his hair a little while before leaving the room and am glad he wants a little “mommy love” before going to sleep.