Glow Stick

The weather in northern California slowly is warming up after a very wet February. While we're not out of the woods of a drought by any means, it's nice to see the sun, especially after Daylight Saving Time. My attractive wife and I are especially happy for the extra daylight which allows Jack to romp around in our condo association's shared back yard area.

This evening, we hung out with neighbors Dewey and Day-Day and Pavel and Zenia. It was still a little cool to eat dinner outside, but we enjoyed being outdoors together for a time. I played catch with Jack.

As dinnertime approached, we all retreated back to our respective units. Day-Day gave Jack a green glow stick, which Jack later wanted to take into the bath. For fun, we turned out the lights in the bathroom. The glow stick gave off a pleasing light as Jack played around with it in the bath.

Serenity. Now.

There have been plenty of times when either my attractive wife or I have yelled out in true Frank Constanza fashion, "Serenity now!" when dealing with our rambunctious three year old. Tonight was oddly different. Instead of resisting every step of the bed time process, Jack slipped subtly into the groove. We came out of the bath and watched an episode of "Ni Hao Ki-Lan" (the Chinese Dora). Jack contemplatively drank his milk laying between my outstretched legs, his own legs crossed.

He didn't fuss when we put on his jammies. He howled with delight at two sessions of the "Hey Now" song (the latter one with me dancing alongside him at his request). He didn't resist brushing his teeth. He was his normal spastic self saying "good night" to mommy in the bedroom but acquiesed to giving her a kiss and moving back into the bedroom.

Here's the kicker, he sat in the chair with me, Bibi Bear and his blanket and snuggled while I read him three books! After the last one, he turned off the light, climbed into the crib (yes, he's still in a crib; we're bad parents) and started playing quietly with my Palm 125 (circa 2000). He's figured out how to light up the screen and enjoys playing with the calculator function.

As I write this (2121 hrs) I can still hear him via the monitor rooting around in his crib but serenely.

Post TV Camera

Jack has introduced a new pre-bedtime ritual: taking pictures. After his milk and post-bath TV show he says, "camera!" and runs downstairs to retrieve my digital camera. He only wants pictures taken so he can view the pictures on the camera. This activity is related to the I-need-to-push-buttons-on-things-that-are-not-toys mania. As I've written before, he expresses this desire by wanting to push buttons on remotes, buttons in the car, and my wife's iPhone.

Tonight, I convinced him to swing around a toy that has two plastic balls that light up when under centrifugal force.

Few More Minutes ...

Jack firmly is into testing boundaries and limits, especially at bed time. For the last three nights, he's opted out of story time which usually follows bath time and saying goodnight to mommy. Jack's favorite line these days is, "Few more minutes," which is used to extend whatever activity he's currently involved in. He's used to try to get more TV time, more bath time, more play time, etc.

"Few more minutes..."

I first heard the phrase at the park when I told Jack it would soon be time to go back home. I can only imagine he heard my attractive wife or myself say it on some occasion. He loves to say it while taking bath and after I say something like, "it will be rinsy time soon."

Diapee!

Lately, Jack has taken to wanting to run around (literally) in nothing but his diapers. Yes, by his wanting to run around in diapers you can infer that my initial optimistic thoughts on getting Jack potty trained by last November were woefully incorrect.

His mania for running around in diapers seems connected in some way to a burst of new-found energy. It's amazing. He runs around our coffee table while watching his favorite shows cackling all the while. On weekends, I take him to the local park where he devours slides, runs across fields and digs into sand.

After his bath time, he resists - mightily - getting into this pajamas. Because it's been a little cold here in northern California, we dress him in two layers: light weight summer pajamas over traditional fleecy footies. We have to fight to get him into the light weights and then again to get him into the footies. Like Dylan Thomas, he likes to rage against the dying of the light but when his head hits the crib mattress and I turn off the light, he eventually gets to sleep.

Bibi Bear

I've written before about Jack's special teddy bear, whom he named, "Bibi Bear". (Sometimes Jack pronounces it, "Bibi Bay-er" for emphasis.) When Jack was a new born, we were blessed with many gifts from friends and family of stuffed animals. As an infant and toddler, Jack showed little interest in them but, after I left for Iraq in the fall of 2007, he picked out one of two identical white stuffed teddy bears. I'm not sure where the name came from (perhaps a variation of "Baby Bear") but Jack chose this bear and hasn't let go since.

Can you tell the difference? Jack can.

Bibi Bear is intimately tied to "paci" (the pacifier) which, I have been trying to wean him off of. I'm afraid there is not much progress to report in this department. We have been successful in relegating Paci only to nighttime and Jack regularly asks for it during our bed time routine. Some mornings, he surprises me by announcing that, "Paci is for babies!" and he leaves it in the crib without issue. Other mornings (especially Mondays) he has a hard time giving it up.

We keep Bibi Bear's twin (brother? sister?) in Jack's crib. Jack acknowledges that it's there but otherwise shows little interest. One night, my attractive wife gave Jack a bear after lights out and Jack announced, "That's not Bibi Bear!" and he was right. How he could tell, especially in the dark, is beyond me but I suspect it's the smell.

Bibi Bear is on the right.

When I give Jack Bibi Bear during out night time routine, he often mashes its nose up to his and sniffs it. Maybe the smell has a calming affect. We wash it but are concerned that maybe it will fall apart which would be bad, especially for Mom and Dad's sanity. Wish us luck.

Rocket Ship

My good friend Herschel gave Jack an awesome gift: a hyper accurate toy of a Saturn V rocket. It breaks apart into the three stages of the original rocket and has a removable Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and Command and Service Module (CSM). It comes with a launching pad and a small lunar landscape to place the LEM on. The first stage has a button that, when pushed, makes a realistic countdown followed by vibration and the sound of real Saturn V taking off. It's awesome. And you know from reading earlier posts that Jack loves rocket ships, both real and imagined.

The funny thing is that Jack is enamored with Stages Two and Three of the rocket and doesn't seem all that interested in the LEM or CSM. The top of Stage 3 has four panels that feather outward when a collar is twisted. Normally, this part of the rocket stores the LEM but I have placed it -- mostly for safe keeping -- on the lunar landscape on one of our surround speakers.

The other night, Jack was watching post-bath TV when an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars came on. Watching Jedi Master Kit Fisto fight General Grievous Jack started waving around his rocket as a "life saver" (i.e., light sabre). He danced around and contorted himself in imitation of the light sabre duel between Fisto and Grievous.

(By the way, the photos of Jack in his room show the wonderful aquatic themed artwork created by my attractive wife's mother, whom Jack calls, "Nana." When we were getting ready for Jack's arrival, Nana and her husband asked if they could prepare Jack's room. Lacking any sense of 1) creativity and 2) design sense, my attractive wife and I said, "Sure!" We left for work one morning and when we came back the entire room was two shades of complimentary blue, and had a number of fishes, ducks, star fish and other marine life painted. It's wonderful. Thanks again, Nana!)

Day-Day's Flashlights

Our neighbor, whom Jack calls, "Day-Day," loves to buy Jack flashlights. He finds them all over but mostly at a weekly flea market (Jack calls it the "free market"). They are very cool. In fact, I took two of them to Iraq with me. One was a small general purpose flashlight that used a series of small LEDs bulbs and the other was a small finger light with a Velcro strap that I attached to my body armor. Both came in very handy in numerous situations.

Lately, after his bath and final episode of The Pink Panther, Jack seems to have this burst of energy every night before actual bed time. The last few weeks, I've given up trying to wind him down and instead let him burn off this final energy of the day. Tonight, he had two of Day-Day's finger lights, one red and one blue, and was dancing around the room. My attractive wife turned off the light to heighten the effect. I thought this would make a good picture...

... but of course the flash on the camera kind of ruined the look I was trying to get. Next, I turned off the flash on the camera and got much better results!

Same maniacal smile but cooler light effects. :-)

Tanny

I just finished my first week back at work which means Jack is back at Day Care for full days. I feel like a bad parent. Before Jack could talk, taking him to Day Care didn't seem all that bad; tending to him back then meant he was fed, properly clothed and kept close. Now that he's a small person, I feel bad that he spends all day away from my attractive wife and me. But it's the only way, I'm afraid, as we both need to keep our full time jobs.

We're lucky though because we have an excellent Day Care provider, Tanny, who runs her service out of her house. She chooses to care for only a few children even though her license allows for more. She and her husband never had children of their own so she became a provider fifteen years ago, first as a hobby and now as a passion. The many children she has helped raised over the years are her children as well. And her love for them is readily apparent. When Jack was less than a year old, I was amazed when I picked him up in the afternoons to find him quietly playing and happy. Tanny is a certified Baby Whisperer.

One of the reasons Jack likes going to Tanny's is his playmate, Jay. He's about four months younger than Jack but masses about the same weight (Jay's father is a big man). Jay and Jack love each other's company truly. When I drop him off in the mornings, Jay comes running into Tanny's living room and together they run to and from the next room. When I tell Jack we're going to Tanny's he says, "I'll see Jay!"

Now that Jack and Jay are nearly three, Tanny has introduced arts and crafts into their daily routine. Every other day or so, Jack comes home with some artwork he created using glue, scissors, cardboard paper and decorations. A picture of Jack's Thanksgiving Wreath was featured on a recent post.

P-Wow

Tonight just before story time, Jack announced he had a friend name P-Wow who lives in outer space. According to Jack's description, P-Wow is red and green and is big. He lives waaaay up in the sky in a rocket ship. (Jack pointed up in the air for emphasis.) Jack said he stays with P-Wow on his trips to outer space because "P-Wow is mine friend." (Jack often uses the word "mine" instead of "my.")

P-Wow (Artist's Impression)

Rocket Ship

Jack is fascinated with rocket ships. A couple of weeks ago, while visiting his cousins, he absconded with a faded beige Styrofoam arrow that had been part of a bow and arrow set. The arrow no longer had its fins and Jack thought it made a fine rocket ship. His cousins let him have the arrow and periodically he plays with it.

His preferred method is hold it with one hand and count down, "One, two, three, nine, blastoff!" and throw it in the air. For some reason, he tends to mispronounce "blastoff" which ends up sounding more like "fiestoff."

Tonight before story time, I snapped the enclosed picture of him launching the "rocket."


At the playground, there is a particular play structure he pretends is a rocket ship. It resembles a small house and has a bench inside. He'll announce, "I'm going to outer space!" and will sit in the structure and make the same countdown. "Are you in outer space now?" I'll ask. "Yes," he says. Then, he jumps down off the structure and says, "I'm back!"

Nighty-night

Following the rule of "routine things done routinely" Jack's bedtime routine consists of a bath staring around 7PM, followed by drying up and getting dressed into his pajamas. He gets to watch a TV program, lately Tivo'd Pink Panther episodes, accompanied by some warm milk. Ideally, the program ends and I switch to quiet and story time. Lately, this hasn't worked as well as I would have liked; Jack develops a second wind just after his bath and it's very hard to get him settled down.

My attractive wife hasn't been feeling well lately so she has been going to bed early. By 8PM she's usually in bed, reading. Just after his TV program ends Jack announces that he wants to kiss Mommy goodnight. He pads into our bedroom and I help him into bed. He gets under the covers and, lately, puts both his hands behind his head as if to luxuriate. Then he give his Mommy a quick kiss goodnight and announces he's ready to go back to his room.

If all goes well, I read him some stories and we turn out the light. Lately though, he still has this second wind of energy and it's hard to get him calmed down. I suppose there are strategies espoused by experts to smooth things out. Having been back with Jack for a month and a half now I've seen evolutionary changes already in his development. And with that change, comes inevitable tweaks in his routine. As Rush lyricist Neil Peart wrote, "changes aren't permanent but change is."

Répéter!

I am fascinated by Jack's ability to watch or do something over and over and over again. The night I downloaded El Kabong Rides Again on my laptop, Jack wanted to watch it again and again. He still does. Last weekend, I set the movie to repeat and went into the kitchen to get some coffee. I stopped counting at seven repeats. Although by the seventh repeat he was only watching casually. If I stopped it though he noticed it immediately.

Also last weekend, we watch the same two episodes of Pinky Dinky Doo eight times in a row. And while there was some light playing with toys, Jack actually watched the episodes (there are two episodes per one thirty minute show).

He's also manic about Handy Manny. Since variety is the spice of life, it wouldn't be so bad (for me) if we had more. But I haven't told the Tivo to get more of them. As a result, Jack just wants to watch the one or two episodes of each show we already have recorded.

I think the repetition relates to the greater transitions problem. Jack doesn't like to stop doing one thing and transition to another. If we are home, he wants to stay home. If we are out, he wants to stay out. When I announce that we will be going to Day Care, you would think I announced there will be no Christmas this year. He's mortified. "Don't want to go to Day Care!" he'll announce. Yet, when we get there, all is fine when he sees his playmate, Jay.

It's tough to be (nearly) three.

Cha-Cha-Changes

So the one thing I've really noticed about Jack is that he's not crazy about changing what he's doing, even if what he's about to do is something I know he really likes. In the morning or early afternoon when I take him to day care he's very upset but when he gets there and sees his playmate, Jay, he's super excited. In fact, I can't get him to say good bye.

Later, when I pick him up I don't even get so much as a "Hi, Dada." I have to drag him out of there. Poor guy; he's just about being in the moment, I guess. Still, he's beginning to comprehend the concept of time or at least now and later. Because I'll be home for most of November on paid leave, his former schedule of getting to day care early has changed. He now knows that I take him to day care "later." He'll even say, "We go day care later," nodding his head up and down. Of course, when "later" does come around he's still not excited about it.