Another Halloween has come and gone, so before it’s too far gone, here are a couple of pics of the guys from preschool yesterday. They got to wear their costumes and have a little parade. John and I took them out for trick-or-treating in the evening, and they both absolutely loved it! Finny asked if he could put his costume back on today because it would be Halloween again, and the first words out of Henry’s mouth upon waking this morning were “I want candy!” Uh oh!
Henry despises having his hair washed. He hollers, cries, squirms and complains about getting his hair washed Every. Single. Time. We’ve had him watch his brother stay calm and cool during the whole process, hoping he’d observe and learn. We’ve tried all sorts of techniques to make the hairwashing more pleasant. We’ve even tried to wash his hair as infrequently as possible, but he’s a little boy, and the grime builds up fast!
Finally, we came up with a bribe (a chocolate-covered raisin) and an accompanying chant (a bathtime chanty?) that goes a little something like this: “Calm and cool and you get a RAI-sin!” We sing it over and over while we wash Henry’s hair, to remind him that he can stay cool, and also to try and distract him from the proceedings. Finny even sings along with us. The phrasing is based on one of the guys’ favorite cartoon characters, Fireman Sam, whose theme song admonishes listeners to stay “cool and calm” when they hear that fire alarm. The little song actually seems to work for little Hen, who tries very hard to settle down, knowing that the coveted raisin is coming!
We find that we’re advising the guys–and ourselves–to stay cool and calm quite a bit these days. Two-year old Henry, who already has his Master of Histrionics degree, and Finny the three-and-a-half year old who’s struggling for total independence, tend to lose their cool more frequently than we’d like. There are many reminders to “use your words” instead of going from zero to instant hollering/whining, reminders to share, reminders to ask for things nicely instead of grabbing and snatching, and reminders to stay cool and calm in order to achieve one’s desired results.
Every once in awhile, we can see our hard work paying off. Last night, as Finny erupted into a fit about something at the dinner table, I calmly & coolly told him his options were to chill out and stay at the table, or go to his room until he could be nice to be around. He of course chafed at his options and began to reload the barrels of his whine cannon, until I gave him The Look (you know the one, the “I mean business” look). At which point, he hopped off his chair and retreated to his room without another word. John and I looked at each other in amazement. We may have even high-fived! And when Finny came back a couple minutes later, cool and calm prevailed.
John nudged me and whispered, “I think we deserve a raisin!”
Yesterday we took the lads to an apple orchard for some apple picking with a few of our (and their) friends.
We drove over towards Watsonville, and as we arrived, the sun broke through the clouds and set us up for a perfect day. Everyone had a blast. Finny was excitedly counting the apples in his special green apple bag, and at the bottom of the (very steep) hill, there were cute horsey tire swings for the kids to ride, and a shady spot for the parents to rest. Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.
After our orchard adventure, we drove over to Moss Landing and picnicked on tacos and burritos in a cute little park. The park was next to a terrific little art gallery, where the artist had built all sorts of fantastic play houses for kids, including a submarine turret, caboose, and lighthouse. Needless to say, the kids loved clambering around and acting as lookouts from the top of the sub.
We took a bunch of our small apples to preschool today to share with the class, and we made apple crisp out of some of the bigger apples. Finny and Henry enjoyed sampling the goods as they transferred them into the cooking pot! It was a terrific way to wrap up the weekend.
Update: Here’s a little video from the outing, wherein Finn makes a special beverage suggestion. 😉
As Finny might say, “Ay Dios mio!” A couple of weeks ago at “pre cool”, Henry lost his beloved little owl blankie, better known as Ollie. When John arrived at Pasitos to pick the boys up at the end of the day, Henry immediately told him about his missing buddy. None of the maestras had been able to find him after searching high and low. John told Henry that perhaps Ollie had decided to fly home and would meet Henry there. And after a quick, surreptitious text message to me, I grabbed one of our spare Ollies and had him ready and waiting!
Henry, of course, was none the wiser, and was amazed that Ollie had “flown” home on his own! Now, John and I were slightly worried that the original Ollie might show up at preschool again, and we were hoping the maestras would be savvy enough to hide him if they found him, so we could stick with the idea that there was only one buddy.
The following week, the boys went to school with buddies in tow. This time, when Dad-o arrived to pick them up, he was in for a big surprise…He walked in the door and was met by an ecstatic Henry, who exclaimed “Two Ollies!” Turns out Henry found Ollie #1 tangled up amongst his nap gear (mat, sheet, blanket), and of course he was already cuddling Ollie #2. We’re not sure if he came up with this on his own, or if one of the maestras planted the seed, but Henry came to the conclusion that the two Ollies were brothers, and that one of them had flown to preschool during the lunch break. And rather than being confused about double Ollies, he was joyful! Now he had two buddies to snuggle – what could be better?!
Ever since, Hen’s been vigilant about having both Ollies around for naptime, playtime, and bedtime. Of course, that means that we now have yet another buddy to keep track of, but it’s worth it. It is absolutely adorable to watch him cuddle both guys wearing an ear-to-ear grin.
Dad-o and I work pretty hard to come up with new, exciting experiences for the guys. The world’s a big place and there’s lots to see and do, so we’re trying to take advantage of as much of it as we can (and as is age-appropriate)! This past Sunday, we headed north to San Francisco for a boat tour of the SF Bay. They guys were pretty excited about the idea of a boat ride, having read about all kinds of ships in various books, and having seen a ton of them at lake Tahoe last month. Turns our our good friend Reen, a San Francisco resident of many years, had never taken a boat tour of the bay either! So we picked her up on our way to pier, and off we went to embark on our mini-adventure.
We totally lucked out on the weather. It was a gorgeous, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. As we left the pier, we spied the big floppy sea lions sunning themselves on the docks. As we motored past Alcatraz we told the boys that’s where “bad dudes” get sent to jail. “I’m not a bad dude!” exclaimed Henry. The most exciting part of the tour was when we cruised underneath the majestic Golden Gate Bridge – a new perspective on such an impressive landmark! Finny was fascinated by all the small sailboats that were practically tipped completely over in the stiff winds coming off the ocean.
Now, I won’t claim it was a photographically brilliant outing: trying to corral the constantly running G-Man as he swerved across the gently pitching deck, always eager to do a header down some staircase or other, kept Dad-O largely off the camera. Still, here’s a little gallery. Everyone had a ball, and our little sailors can’t wait to do it again! (The strangers in one of the photos were some kids doing a photo scavenger hunt on Fisherman’s Wharf.)
This past Monday, Dad-o celebrated his 36th birthday. We treated him to pizza at one of our favorite local joints, Willow Street Pizza (also known as “Mega Bot!” for their delicious fresh-baked loaves of bread you can snack on while you wait. Bot = bread, of course).
The boys would have much preferred to skip the pizza and get straight down to the business of eating Dad-o’s birthday cake, which was chocolate through and through. We showed Dad-o the cake before we left for dinner so he’d know to leave some room for it afterwards.
I think the guys were also pretty excited to sing “Happy Birthday” again since it’s one of their current favorites! They helped him blow out the candles, and then got involved in some serious enjoyment (photos) of the chocolate bounty. For Henry, the experience was only slightly marred when he bit off a piece of candle, expecting it to be delicious candy, and discovered it was not delicious at all! (Note his expression in the final shot in the gallery.)
While Dad-o was away in Chicago this past weekend, the boys and I had a jam-packed weekend full of adventure. On Saturday morning, we visited our local fire station, where the dudes got to explore and sit in the pumper truck, tour the station, and see a fireman come down the fire pole (twice!). They also tried on some helmets and got to chat with the fire captain and firemen on duty.
Afterwards, we headed home to host a playdate at Fort Nack (a.k.a. the new playset) so Finny and Henry’s friends and their parents could enjoy the new swings, slide, fort, and trapeze. I think everyone had a ball–there were lots of kids clambering around, Finny was giving them a tour of the newly-dubbed playset-as-fire truck and explaining to the other kids how he would put out fires. There were kids on the sandbox, kids in the fort, kids on the grass, and parents enjoying the gazebo and grass for a picnic lunch.
Sunday morning found us “bageling,” our traditional Sunday-morning stroll to the neighborhood bagel joint for apple juice and cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese. Then we strolled home through Palm Haven with a pitstop at our favorite rock garden, which is filled with interesting small succulent plants and wee garden sculptures. After naps, we headed over to San Jose State University for a free “Pops in the Park” concert, featuring famous movie theme music, another picnic, lots of grass to run around in, *free* ice cream, and more time to hang out with our buddies big and small! It was also our friend Malachy’s 3rd birthday (thanks to his mom Shay for hipping us to the concert!), so the boys also got to enjoy cupcakes and watermelon courtesy of the birthday boy. The guys had an absolute blast and were so worn out that Finny asked to leave the concert early so they could come home and get ready for bed!
We all missed Dad-o while he was away, but we sure had a nice weekend with lots of activities to keep us busy. We were also a little sad that Dad-o couldn’t be around to party with us, but we did snap some pictures to share with him and with you. (See also some concert/picnic pics from our friend Tara.)
We’ve just put the finishing touches on a very busy weekend with the boys. In addition to riding on Thomas the Tank Engine Saturday morning with friends, we built a terrific new play structure/swingset in the backyard (a.k.a. the “Nackyard”).
John and I had been talking for a while about getting some kind of jungle gym or swingset for the guys, and after tons of research, we found one that we thought would be both super-fun and would fit the smallish space we had available for it. It was delivered to us on Thursday in three enormous boxes on a huge pallet, and it was up to us to build the thing. The estimate on the instructions said 5-7 hours, so I figured we’d be doing really well if we doubled that and assumed we’d need two solid days.
After sorting and labeling the hardware, and grouping the lumber into piles, we set to work after lunch on Saturday. We got the skeleton of the base constructed and left the rest ’til Sunday. I got a bright and early start at 8:30, and by 10:00, we’d gotten the climbing wall on, the deck finished, and the swingset support arms up. The boys were anxious to know when it would be finished: “about 30 more minutes, or more like 45?”, asked Finny repeatedly. They were happy to help out by using their own play tools to hammer, saw, and drive screws. We worked through the afternoon after a quick lunch break. Even though we made a deal with Finny that we wouldn’t put up the swings and flags until after naptime, he decided he was too excited to sleep and came out to hang out with us while we finished up. He was so thrilled to help Dad-o put the flags on, test out the swings and trapeze, and do an inaugural run down the slide (belly first!).
By the time Henry woke up from his nap at 3:30, we had the whole thing done, and the guys spent the rest of the afternoon playing their hearts out. Standing on the deck preparing to slide, Henry looked at me and remarked with a grin, “I like this play equipment, Mom-o.” Here’s a gallery of the weekend’s proceedings, and a shot of the finished set. Viva la Nackyard!
Recently I decided to try a new strategy on our histrionics-prone Henry. He really seems to enjoy crying at the drop of a hat to express how he’s feeling about things. Don’t like getting your dipe changed? Bring on the caterwauling! Don’t want to eat what you requested for breakfast? Time for crocodile tears! Feel like protesting before your day at preschool? Cue the shrieking. You see where I’m going with this…
Time for a change, I thought to myself. So this weekend, after Henry cried and screamed his way through having his hair washed (as usual), I talked to him about what it might be like if he chose not to cry. l said, “If you could stay cool and calm during hair washing, things would go so smoothly! And quickly! And you could have a treat like an Oreo or something.” He sort of seemed to understand the no crying = treat idea.
Then I thought it might be worth prepping him with the same idea before preschool on Monday. Lately he’s been crying quite a bit at drop off and sporadically during the day. He can be such a sweetheart but he’s starting to become known as “the kid who cries a lot.” Not great. So on Sunday I talked to him a couple times about preschool, and how he could decide to be a happy guy and not cry at preschool. I reminded him how much fun it was, how Finny was always there to help him out, how he could have Ollie if he needed him, and how much the nice Maestras like him. I said “really, there’s no reason to cry, Henry. Preschool is fun, and it will be even more fun if you decide you don’t want to cry, and that you want to enjoy yourself.”
Lo and behold, success! In the car on the way to school, I heard Henry quietly repeating (unprompted!) “I’m not going to cry at preschool.” When we got to school and he was taking his hat and shoes off, he repeated “I’m not going to cry at preschool.” He wailed for a minute when he asked for a snack and I told him we just arrived and it wasn’t snack time yet, but then I encouraged him to go find something fun to do. He quieted right down, went off to play, and after smooches, I departed with zero histrionics! When we came to get the boys yesterday afternoon, I asked Maestra Yolanda how Henry did. She said he had a really good day and she even heard him saying “I’m not going to cry at preschool” a few times. (Apparently he also said “I’m not going to nap at preschool,” but his weary bod won that battle!)
That’s my boy!
[Update: Hen did even better today, not peeping even once in protest when I dropped off the guys! Way to stick the landing, kiddo. As Borat might excitedly say, “Great success!!” –J.]
A birthday wouldn’t be complete without singing and (cup)cake, so thanks to nephew Patrick for documenting the proceedings:
We neglected to mention that just before the festivities, Henry had been forcibly awakened from an epic nap (lest he be up all night). That left him pretty lethargic & unsure what to make of all this fuss. (In the previous gallery you can really see the effect of the cupcake sugar hitting his bloodstream!) It’s also funny to observe Finn’s oversight of the candle-blowing operation. He really had to work at not jumping in and doing the honors himself!
Nostalgic bonus roundup:
Henry Seamus Nack turned 2 years old today! Since we were flying back to SJ from our weeklong trip to Colorado, we celebrated Henry’s big day on Wednesday in Leadville. His cousins, aunt, and grandparents were there for the festivities–candles, singing, cupcakes, and presents! Here’s a link to the party gallery.
We can hardly believe our little Henry is already two. In many ways, it seems like he’s been with us far longer than a mere 2 years, but in other ways he is still our little bitty guy. It’s been terrific to see his personality bloom this past year, especially when it comes to his ability to use so many words to express himself instead of being thwarted by a lack of vocabulary and constantly seeming frustrated. Although he can be a bit slow to warm up to new acquaintances, once he does, he is a joy to be around–he’s slyly goofy, often breaking into a wry grin when he’s up to something. He’s kind to his big brother, loves all kinds of physical horseplay, and loooooooves his Dad-o. We love it when his blue eyes sparkle and he verbalizes his observations, often asking us questions to help figure things out. Hooray for Henry! We couldn’t love you more, little squirrel!
Yesterday was the boys’ first day of preschool at Pasitos! Clearly our soft-pitch sales job this past week worked, because they were up earlier than usual this morning and raring to get to school. Bags and lunches were packed, paperwork was in hand, hats were donned, buddies were grabbed, and we were off by 8a.m.
I had planned on 2 things today: 1. Hanging around the classroom for quite awhile this morning to ease the guys’ transition from home to school and downplay the drama, and 2. receiving one or more phone calls that Henry or Finny were crying inconsolably and one of us needed to come get them (we were warned this is fairly common during the transition period). What a surprise that neither plan came to fruition!
As I finished up the paperwork and stashed the boys’ belongings in the appropriate cubbies, both boys were already very busy playing and chatting with the teacher. I stuck around for maybe 10 more minutes, then gave each boy a smooch and took off–it was clear they were doing just fine! The phone never rang with a call from Pasitos, so we figured the day must have gone well. I think John and I were actually more nervous/worried about school than the boys!
When we arrived to pick them up, they were playing outside, and Finny ran to the gate, so excited to see us. His voice wavered quite a bit when he said “I’m so happy to see you!” It was a thin line between crying and smiling, but I think he was just really overwhelmed with how relieved he was when he saw us. Henry was holding Ollie and playing ball, and was also very happy to see Dad-o strolling in.
The teacher assured us the boys had a good day. Both had napped and played well. She also remarked that Henry didn’t like having his diaper changed (no surprise to me, I guess I should’ve mentioned that!), and that he ate a lot (I guess he really took advantage of snacktime!). At some point Henry started crying pretty hard for Ollie (we tried to talk him into only having Ollie at nap time, but I guess he didn’t want to give him up upon waking). Finny stepped in and told the teachers what Henry wanted, and once they handed Ollie to him, he was fine. “Ollie saved the day,” she said.
So all in all, a very good first day of school, and I think the boys are looking forward to going back. Just now as I was putting Finny to bed, he said “I don’t understand Spanish yet. I think I will learn Spanish when I grow up to be a man. In about a week or so, I’ll be grown up and will learn it then.”
Update: Here’s our little video recap with the lads:
We have had quite the exciting day today. At 7:30am, our nanny Coco called and said she couldn’t make it in, since her daughter Tiffy was in labor and was due to give birth. Coco was headed to SF to look after Tyler (a.k.a. the T-Man), Tiffy’s 2 year-old, while Tiffy was in the hospital.
Since we found ourselves in the position of juggling childcare between Mom-o and Dad-o, after our morning meetings we thought we’d treat the guys to a viewing of Pixar’s “Cars 2” at the movie theater. The boys were so excited they couldn’t WAIT to get into the Ocho and head for the show. (We bought tickets online early, so we had about 2 hours of “when do we leave for the movie?” to deal with. And we’ve been hearing Henry say “I’m Mater, Dad-o” for weeks on end!)
This was our first visit to a movie theater with the guys, and we all love the Cars characters, so the four of us were pretty jazzed. Once we got out of the car and walked towards the box office, Finny kept saying “I’m so happy this is my first time seeing a movie at the movie theater! I’m so excited!” Not surprisingly, once we made our way towards the theater, Finny spied the popcorn, so of course we had to get a big bag to snack on. He was very concerned that I was giving too much of it to Henry and Dad-o, and that there wouldn’t be enough left for him (Impossible! It was an enormous bag!)
We settled in to watch the movie (Hen and Finno on booster seats–thanks AMC Mercado!), and both boys were absolutely rapt. Henry got a little freaked when there was fire in one scene, and had to take a couple short breaks, but Finny hung in there for the entire movie, only moving to come sit on my lap halfway through. They both really enjoyed it–and I get the feeling Finny’s going to be asking to go to a lot more movies! The movie, by the way, was a lot of fun–another great flick by the Pixar gang!
The boys and I treated Dad-o to what I consider a “Big Adventure Father’s Day” this year. The festivities started super-early with our PJ-clad dad (above) opening presents Finny and Henry picked out: tons of fun boxer shorts including the requisite “greatest dad” and “#1 dad”, and a couple of fun T-shirts.
Then after a quick breakfast we climbed into the Ocho and hit the road for Dennis The Menace Park in Monterey. It was a beautiful day, and since the boys woke up so early, we made it to the park by 9am…well before any other families. We had the entire park to ourselves, and in particular the giant (real) steam locomotive that the guys love climbing on. Our busy engineer and conductor spent what must have been almost 90 solid minutes playing on the engine*, with only a quick break for a snack and a very brief tour of the park’s other attractions. If you’re an SJ local and you haven’t gone to this park, make haste! It is well worth the drive. It may be the Best Park Ever.
Soon it was lunchtime, so we drove over to a little cafe for pizza in their beautiful courtyard. As Dad-o was finishing up his pie, Finny and I snuck away for one last secret treat–a quick walk down the street to a French bakery, where we picked up a sackful of delicious little chocolatey and nutty cookies. After a lovely driving tour of the seaside all along the Monterey Peninsula, we headed home.
Our last treat of the day was meeting up with our friends the Wiggins and their kids for a taco picnic at Rolly Slide Park. Everyone was absolutely spent by the end of the day, and after a quick bath, the guys hit the hay and Mom-o and Dad-o were not too far behind.
[ *Engineer Finn just wouldn’t be lured by other stuff: “We’re going to focus on the engine,” he informed me. –J.]
The times, they are a changin’ at the Nack household. One of our nannies, Tiffany, will soon be leaving us because she’s due with her second baby, which means she won’t exactly have time to drive 50 miles to our house twice a week and kick it with the Nack boys during the day. Since Finny’s 3 and potty-trained, we’d been talking about getting him into a preschool soon. Tiffany’s due date has been great motivation to kick the preschool (and daycare for Henry) search in high gear. (As Finny might say, “Step on the gas, Mom-o!”)
We’ve got many friends with kids who are already in preschool, so it’s been easy to find referrals to preschools with flexible schedules and options for pre-preschool little guys like Henry. I’d waded through tons of flyers and brochures, and surfed lots of websites before narrowing down our search to a few options. We’ve now toured two facilities with the boys in tow, to see how they might like the idea of going to “school” a couple days a week.
I think they’re both going to enjoy themselves. During our visits, they’ve taken plenty of initiative–exploring the various play/craft/reading and outdoor play areas, and watching what the other little kids are doing. Finny is really excited about the idea of having his own lunchbag and plastic tupperware box for food. We made a big deal of going to Target and picking out bags and boxes. As we were leaving for this morning’s preschool tour, Finny asked me if he could take his new bag and box! I hated to disappoint him but since it was only an hour-long visit, I told him we didn’t need them today. (“But we’ll need them in a few weeks, buddy!”) As we headed out towards the car, Finny said excitedly “Come ooooon preschool!!!” like he just couldn’t wait to get there. Hen was similarly pumped up, dancing with excitement.
Every time we talk about preschool or I even think about dropping the guys off for the day, I get that clutchy feeling in my chest and a little voice in my heart says “They’re growing up!” I just can’t believe we’ve hit the preschool milestone already. Now I just need to make sure Finny understands that Dad-o and I won’t actually be hanging out with him and his brother while they’re at preschool all day!
[“I’m going to *pee* school, Dad-O!” proclaimed Finn. “I’m gonna pee in the school!” You stay classy, kiddo! –J.]
John has been away in Germany all week, so I have been solo-parenting. This sometimes means that the guys get to watch a little more TV than normal because it lets me get a few things done around the house either before I leave for work or before the kids go to bed. They’d watched a couple pre-bedtime episodes of “Mighty Machines” (so Mom-o could clean up the kitchen and get laundry going without stumbling over toddlers!), a program they really enjoy. Basically they’re 30 minute-long shows about various gigantic vehicles in action–in mines, at airports and fire stations, in forests, and at cement plants. To say the guys love Mighty Machines is an understatement.
Last night, our last solo-mom night, Henry had already gone to bed, and Finny approached me.
F: “I want to watch Mighty Machines before bed!”
M: “I don’t think so, buddy. It’s pretty late, and besides, you’ve watched a lot of TV this week already. I think we’ll skip TV tonight.”
F: “But I want to watch TV before bed every night like you and Dad-o do.”
M: Speechless. Sort of ashamed, and embarrassed! Thinking about what a lame role model I am! Seriously reconsidering my TV-watching habits!
BUSTED.
Sometimes I think we need to hire some of the WWII Navajo Wind Talkers or build our own Enigma machine to decipher what exactly Finny is talking (or not talking!) about these days. Recently, while I was getting ready for work, Finny and Henry were poking around our bedroom, and Finny exclaimed, “I want to play with that Scramble under the couch!” My response: “Whaaaat? What is Scramble? Can you describe what you’re talking about?” He said “The little pieces with letters on them that go in this big box. It’s right here under the couch.” It was then I figured out he was talking about the Scrabble game under the bed!
Sometimes, the challenge is not even to decipher the words coming out of Finny’s mouth, but the things he’s feeling when he chooses not to use words. This has become more common lately, as he tries to noverbally exert his will in various situations. He’ll grump around because he wants you to bow to his bossy demands, or he doesn’t want to do something he knows he should (like ask for things politely). He’s trying to see whether he can get away with being rude and bossy instead of polite (short answer: NO.).
Last night, Finny was terribly grouchy, whiny, and petulant (without giving me anything to go on), and he was raising a big stink about wanting to watch one of his fire engine videos. I refused on the grounds that he had been a totally grumpy handfull all night long, so I wasn’t rewarding that with a video. He was unhappy about it, but seemingly went to bed quietly after we read a book. An hour or so later I heard him moaning and crying in bed, and when I went down to check on him, he wouldn’t explain why he was crying…but I figured out he was still upset about the video.
Tonight, after a prolonged late-afternoon doctor visit where he was a total gem, he asked about the fire truck video, and told me he would not cry, whine, fight, or kick like he did last night, and that he would be good so we could watch the video. I was impressed that my 3 year-old boy had sorted through last night’s episode and decided at last to verbalize his feelings. It just lightens my heart when we make tangible progress through these kinds of rough patches.
[“These tiles don’t want to be obedient!” said Finn the other day, mashing the Scrabble set. “They just want to friggin’ *panic*!” Oh boy: we tell Finn not to “panic” when he’s emotionally derailing, and as for the language–well, more on that in a bit. –J.]
Boy oh boy, there are a lot of decisions being made around our house these days. Mr. 3-year-old Finny is testing out boundaries like it’s his job (which, I suppose, it is!). Never shy with an opinion, he’s started experimenting with if/then statements as well as linking together completely disparate ideas or actions. Here are a few examples:
“I will get out of bed now, but I want to stay in my peej (pajamas) for a little while. I will get dressed after breakfast.”
“If Henry’s going to play with my ice cream truck, I’m not going to go into the kitchen with you.”
“I am going to play with my legos over here, and you should go into the kitchen and clean up.”
“First, I am going to eat my banana chips. Then I will eat my toast, and if I am still hungry, I might want a little yogurt.”
“I want to play in the backyard, so we should skip bath tonight.”
He’s also still quite interested in freestyling when it comes to his bedtime routine. This has evolved to a regular little ritual. Finny and Dad-o do “talk a little bit,” then he and I do our song. After I say goodnight and leave the room, Finny gets up, goes to the bathroom (even though he just did that at bathtime), then goes back to bed. The other night he took it a few steps further and after a few minutes of overhearing him rustling around in his room, I opened the door to find the bathroom lights on, his bedroom lights on, his bedroom door open, and him standing in the middle of the rug, seemingly trying to decide what to do next! We settled on a minute of backrubbing, followed by his committment to staying in bed.
Back when we decided Finny was big enough to sleep in his big-boy bed, we were absolutely amazed that once he was tucked in for his nap or for the night, he stayed in there and just slept. There were zero attempts at sneaking out of his room, or sleeping in chairs, or on the floor. He loved his bed, and like his mom, he loved his sleep, so it has always been smooth sailing when it comes to bedtime.
Of course, nothing lasts forever…Lately Finny has been keenly interested in finding out what’s going on outside his room after he goes to bed.
Visit #1: It started when he simply wasn’t sleepy at bedtime, so after about an hour of chatting and singing to himself in bed, he got up to use the bathroom. We heard him shuffling around in the bathroom and decided to see what he would do next. Sure enough, a little blond head appeared behind the door, grinning at us, asking us what we were doing. (We were slumped on the couch watching mindless, TV! What else would we be doing at 9:15pm on a Tuesday?) John got up, escorted Finny back to bed, and chatted with him in the dark while rubbing his little back for awhile. Eventually, Finny fell asleep.
Visit #2: Once again Finny proclaimed he wasn’t sleepy, and appeared behind the bathroom door again, gently asking if one of us would rub his back, as he was sure that would help him sleep. I went in, we sang, I rubbed the back, and he went to sleep a little while later.
Visit #3: The next night, John and I went upstairs to play Scrabble while we watched TV, so we turned all the lights out downstairs (except for the nightlight in the hall). We were both expecting our small visitor, and were curious to see if he’d figure out we were upstairs. Answer: Yep! We heard his bedroom door open, his little footfalls on the steps, and saw him peek around our bedroom door. He sauntered in with a casual “What are you guys doing?”, checked out what was on TV, and acted as if he might stay awhile! The “back to bed” drill was enacted again.
Visit #4: We thought everything was great–hadn’t heard a peep from Finny after he went to bed, so we went upstairs and went to sleep. At some point in the deep dark middle of the night, I awoke to find him standing right in front of my face, waving a Kleenex around, calmly asking for help blowing his nose. A bit freaked out, I complied, and he took himself back to bed. The following day we discussed his ability to blow and wipe off his own nose without having to come all the way upstairs to ask me for help. He replied “I will never ever do that again.” I clarified that he should definitely come upstairs if anything was wrong–like he didn’t feel good, or was scared, or couldn’t sleep, but not just for nose-blowing.
Visit #5: Last night, Finny went to bed on time, we sang our song and turned out the lights. 12 seconds later he appeared in the kitchen to tell me he wasn’t tired yet and couldn’t sleep. I laughed and said he hadn’t even really tried yet, and to please go back in. 15 minutes later when John arrived from picking up grown-up take-out food, out pops Finny, asking for some of Dad-o’s trademark “talk a little bit” and backrubbing, which he was confident would help him sleep. That was the last we heard from him.
I wonder what he’ll come up with tonight!
The eldest Micronack has suffered a significant loss this week. Sadly, while we were cavorting on the beach on Easter Sunday, Finny’s Thomas engineer hat got lost. We’re not even really sure when it happened–we just know that it was super windy that afternoon, and as I was changing Finny out of his cold, soaking wet clothes into some dry ones, the hat disappeared in the blustery chaos. It’s not just Finny who’s bummed out. We are all sad. That hat is just as much a part of Finny as his buddy Leo! No exaggeration, he’s worn it all day every day for almost a year. There was some justified frowning and pouting from our boy on the way home, and Dad-o and I had to start thinking about how we would replace his cherished cap.
We found a decent substitute online, and ordered it right away. It’s not exactly the same, but it does have Thomas on the front and the railroad crossing sign on the sides. As Finny and I were discussing our trip to the beach last night at bedtime, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. He enthusiastically replied “going into the water!,” and then quickly and somberly followed up with “But losing my Thomas hat was not so good.” I agreed with him, and assured him that we’d found a new one and it should arrive in the mail within the next few days. I said “It’s not exactly like your old one, but I think you’ll like it.” He looked at me, smiled, and said, “I think I’ll like it, too.”
The upside is that we get to enjoy the rare treat of seeing Finny’s beautiful blond wavy hair until the new hat arrives. 🙂