November 20, 2008

The fine line

There is a fine line between cute and, well, not cute. And Jack has been walking that line. There have been so many recent situations that are equal parts annoying and funny. Here are some case studies:

CASE STUDY#1:
Ok, this isn't very funny, but it is mildly amusing. On Sunday evening, Jack climbed out of his crib. Just climbed on out. He wacked his head on the way down, so he was crying by the time we got in there. What can I do? Is it time for a real bed already? He's not even 18 months yet. I don't think I could get him to stay in a real bed . . . . shoot, I can't even get him to stay in his crib. His legs are pretty long and his upper body strength rivals mine! He can climb into his crib now too. We're hoping that the experience was traumatic enough to keep him from doing it again.

CASE STUDY #2:
We struggle getting Jack to help with picking up his toys. I know he's not old enough to clean up everything himself, but he literally pulls everything off of his toy shelves at once and scatters it around the house. So, we've started making him put toys he's not playing with away before pulling something new out. I do about 9/10 of the picking up, but I make him "help."

Last Saturday, he was refusing to pick up his blocks and put them back in the bag. He had never done this before. I gave him a warning and then had him sit in his time out chair until he was ready to help. He sat there quietly and about a minute later he said, "Reaby! Reaby!" So, I led him by the hand back to the living room and he picked up two of the blocks, held them over the bag, pulled them back and then DROPPED THEM ON THE FLOOR. I kid you not . . . he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. I know that he was willfully disobeying, but I was trying so hard not to laugh.

So, I calmly led him back to the chair, only this time he was not sitting quietly. He was wailing. After he calmed down, I heard him say, "Reaby." And he came back out and picked up the remaining blocks. He's been doing pretty well at picking up every since.

CASE STUDY #3:
Saturday morning, my cell phone rang. It was in my bedroom, and as I was walking in to answer it, Jack came running out. Seriously, he was booking it. I thought to myself, "I need to see what he was into when I get off the phone."

"Hello?"

"This is Hillsdale County 911. A call was just placed to us from your cell phone."

Gulp. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, we think a little girl might have called us from your phone."

"I am SO sorry."

CASE STUDY #4:

I tried to put him down for a nap a little before noon yesterday. His babysitter came at noon and he was still awake, so I just decided to get him up and try when I got back from my meeting. I went in to get him, picked him up and took him out to her. At that point, I realized he didn't have a diaper on.

We laughed about it, and I took him back to his room, picked his dry diaper up off the floor and laid him down to put it back on him. That's when I noticed one of his socks was damp. I was still totally clueless and wondered if it had been too hot in there (we have a small space heater in there). I felt his other sock and it was soaked. That's right. He peed in his crib with no diaper on.

And I have no idea how he got pee in so many places other than to wonder if he was spinning and peeing at the same time. It was on the wall, it was on the dust ruffle on the crib, it was on his book shelf and on the carpet. All of those things are fairly close to his crib, but they are in all different directions from it. I didn't think he could hold enough to do that much spraying. Needless to say, I was late for my meeting.

CASE STUDY #5:
This one isn't so much annoying as it is plain ol' cute. While Jack is most often heard saying "no" to anything he is asked, a close second for most used phrase is, "un mo?" which translates to "one more?" During every book we read, we get to the last page or two and he starts asking "un mo? un mo?" before I'm even done reading. When I scratch his back and stop, he asks "un mo?" When I pretend to chase, catch and tickle him, he'll run away shrieking "un mo!" The sweetest thing he's ever said this to was last week. I got him up from his nap and changed his diaper. As I was picking him up, I kissed him on the cheek and he said, "un mo?" So I kissed him again and he said, "un mo?" This went on until we were both laughing.

CASE STUDY #6:
Jack has x-ray vision when it comes to anything with footballs, football players, football fields or anything football related on it. He wants his football blanket when he naps. He hands me the remote control for the television and says, "bootball?" The kid is obsessed. There was a tiny little football in the corner of a sign while he was grocery shopping with Kyle last night, and from far away he saw it and started pointing and saying "bootball, bootball." He tore through the entire newspaper on Monday pointing out every football related thing there was.

And all I can think is, "Please don't grow up to be a football player. Please, please, please." It's my absolute least favorite sport to watch.

10 comments:

Heather S. said...

I am cracking up! Some of our "case studies" are all too familiar! Lucy went through the phase of taking her diaper off at naptime. Unfortunately, she did it a handful of times and then went #2! Gross! I had to tape the diaper around the little velcro flaps so she couldn't take it off!!!

Anonymous said...

i'm going through the same things with my son, luke (except for the crawling out of the crib and 911 calls). they're so frustrating sometimes but too cute to stay mad at.

Anonymous said...

amazingly, when it's not your own kid, everything is cute! loved all of the stories!

i'm especially impressed with all of his little words!

The Giffen Family said...

Love it...but after much thought I've come to the conclusion our boys should NEVER meet!! We would be in a world of hurt (from laughter and also from the crazy things they would get themselves into). However, I do think it's nuts how similar our lives are! No wonder Jan likes us both ;)

Bruce and Lynn Jarrett said...

Too funny! I'm glad mine are now grown.

In case #4, be glad it was pee! One of mine (who will remain nameless), fingerpainted the wall and crib with... well you get the picture, and I was shopping! Daddy had to clean him up!

alex said...

now that you said it you totally jinxed yourself. he has no option BUT to become a football player now.

Tara said...

I loved reading these. :)

We're about to put a crib tent on our son's crib because I'm so afraid he will fall out one of these days. Hopefully you won't need any further intervention, but that might be an option for you if he keeps climbing out.

Jeanette said...

I can't wait...can't wait.

Smith Family Blog said...

Oh my goodness, #4 had me rolling... perhaps because I can identify so much. I am so glad my son is not the only one...

heather.snider said...

uhh golf?