James has had a rough time these last few weeks. Everything brings on a serious amount of tears and anguish. I had no idea that almost 3 year olds had so. many. feelings. I was really feeling like the worst mom in the world because I didn't know what I could do to help him. Nothing I say or do seems to make things better, he just gets mad at me. Every day I felt like I would reach the limit of my patience by lunchtime...and then I have the entire rest of the day to get through!! (Since Anthony hasn't been around as much). Sunday I decided to try out some new things with James to see if it makes a difference and so far, so good! We went back to using our good behavior chart, where he gets to put a magnet on a board when we "catch" him being a good helper, using kind words, listening and obeying, etc... I also made a concerted effort to spend more one on one time with him and let him be in charge of the games we play and the way we play them. I realized that with how busy everything has been, as soon as I'm not doing something with Rett, I jump to cleaning or laundry or making phone calls, or primary stuff and James always has to wait for my attention while I do "just one more thing". I also wanted to have time with him where he gets to make the decisions and the rules, to see if that would help with his behavior. So far we have seen a big improvement!! Anthony said he knew that I had a better day Monday without me even saying anything because he didn't get a desperate phone call from me in the evening wondering where he was (he got home from work at 6pm when he was supposed to get off at 3:30. Yeah. Not cool.)
Rett is doing great. He is still the most relaxed, easy going baby. He sleeps pretty well most nights, getting up only once around 2am (3am if he got to bed later than James), and then getting up for the day around 6am. I had to go into the attic to pull out the 3-6 month clothes because he was busting out of all the smaller clothes! He is a deliciously plump baby :) This morning I woke up to him making noises on the monitor and after a few seconds I realized that he wasn't crying, he was cooing and making happy noises! When I went to get him he was waving his arm and around and smiled at me as soon as he saw me. What a wonderful thing to see in the morning!! It put me in such a good mood :) Nursing is still going great. I've heard from a lot of people that if you make it to three months then most of the kinks get worked out, so I have hope that we can keep going. He is about the age James was when I stopped nursing him and went to pumping, so this is my first time breastfeeding a baby as they get older. Another whole new baby experience for me!
Like I planned, I sent the judge of Anthony's jury duty trial a birth announcement with a little note, thanking him for letting Anthony of jury duty. Monday we got a letter in the mail back from him addressed to Everett! This is the letter:
Isn't it adorable? I definitely have to put it in his baby book.
Some cute things James has said/did recently:
- He loves to go around yelling, "Poo Do!!! Poo Do!!!". Every time we ask him what it means he says, "It means, birds!" and we say he is silly. This morning I was trying to get him out of a cranky mood and I looked at him and said, "Poo Do!". He grinned at me and said, "that's silly!"
- He doesn't like sitting in shopping carts, so whenever I go to the store with him he starts asking if he can "walk" while we are still in the car. We went to goodwill a few days ago and since we were just checking the kids book section, I told him he could walk as long as he stays next to the cart and doesn't run away. He was happy with that and started walking next to me when I stopped to look at something. He didn't notice right away and after he got a few feet down the aisle, he turned around and ran back laughing, "Ha! I almost ran away!!".
- He has finally started saying prayers (he has always refused when we ask him if he wants to), but he will only do it if he has a microphone. The first time he did it was at the microphone in the primary room after church. He got up there and I asked him if he wanted to say a prayer and he said yes so I helped him. He has a little toy microphone at home, so now he will do it if he can use his microphone. It is so cute! Last night I was helping him say a prayer and told him to say, "Please bless me..." and he said, "Please, bless you! (like after you sneeze)"
- He doesn't take very good naps anymore, but he is still in his crib so he just spends a few hours a day in there playing. If I have the monitor turned to his camera, it is very entertaining! He is usually acting out different tv shows and books he has seen recently. One of his favorites right now is Curious George and the Birthday Surprise. We will be in there and I can hear him yell, "It's a party!!" and then "Oh yeah!!"
2 comments:
James only praying in the microphone and acting out his favorite shows is SO funny!
Oh, and that letter from the judge is so cool!!! How thoughtful and funny of him!
And yes, three years old is ROUGH. I don't know why they call it "terrible two's", the threes are so much worse. Dallin was an angel at 2 and then right after we moved out here, he turned 3 a week later and became a little monster. I actually said something to my nephew out here (teenager) about Teya being difficult and he said, "Teya? I thought Dallin was your difficult child." I was so surprised because Dallin had always been my angel boy and I knew he had just barely started these temper tantrums and meltdowns.
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