Jack @ 33 Months

This month has been incredibly trying with Jack. It seems we’re in a new testing phase and he’s pushing this battle of wills to the outer limits. Mark and I are working on being absolutely consistent with the discipline, because we know that’s the only way we’re going to achieve some measure of peace around here. I’m just praying that we can get through the worst of this before David comes along.

Singing a lovely aria with a double-cheeked piano accompaniment

Jack has always been an early riser, and so am I, so that’s not so terrible. But, since we’ve been here he’s been waking up between 6-6:30am every day, and that’s just TOO early as I look down the road a couple of months at the coming nights when sleep will be scarce. He responds well to sound cues indicating when things should happen, such as the mantle clock “bonging” and telling us we have to go to bed, or the timer going “ding” to tell us we have to get out of the tub. It’s amusing really- if I tell him it’s time to get out of the tub, he screams and fights about it, but if I set the timer, when it dings, he almost never fights about getting out. Anyway… knowing this, I bought him a CD clock radio, and put in a Laurie Berkner CD to serve as the alarm. It’s only been a couple of days, but I think it’s going to work well. I don’t really care when he wakes up, but the rule is that it is not morning time until Laurie starts singing, and he may not get out of his bed. I’ve set the alarm for 6:45 for now, but my goal is to get to at least 7am. It took a couple of weeks being out of the crib, but Jack has finally figured out that he doesn’t have to call for me to get him out of bed. This morning, he came into the bedroom at 6am: “I climbed out Mommy!” I sent him right back to bed and reminded him that it was not morning yet, and he must stay in bed until he heard Laurie Berkner, and I didn’t hear a peep until then!

Jack’s current raison d’être is the garage door. He lives to open and close it. I was trying to wake him up from an extra long nap the other day, and just couldn’t convince him to wake up, until I said “we need to go to the store, do you want to open the garage?” Like Lazarus from his tomb when Jesus said “come forth!”, Jack woke from his dead sleep and ran for the garage.

There may already be signs of the coming jealousy when David comes along… when I pull up my shirt a bit baring my tummy so Jack can feel (or see) David kicking, Jack might put his hand there briefly, but has very little interest, and soon gets frustrated saying, “can you close your tummy Mommy?! Need to play toys!”