Serious Reader

[Transcribed from video]
Tonight, as Grandma and Grandpa got ready for bed, Alex laid down on his zoo blanket and held his own story time. He laid onto his back, crossed his legs and rested his Trucks book on his leg.  From there, he held forth about the "car" and the "truck" in the book. He wasn't very interested in going to bed himself.

We played his Lullaby Baby Einstein video and even tried to show him that Blink-Blink was drinking his milk.  It took a while to work.

April 3, 2009

A Visit to Stepping Stones

[Transcribed from video]

The week of adventure continued today with a visit to Stepping Stones Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut. The last time we were here, Alex didn't really get it.  This time around, though? Boy! Did he get it! There was so much to explore in the Toddler Room.  There were climby-spaces, soft couches with books and puzzles. There was a slide and Alex went down all by himself! (Well, grandma had to show him how to get back up to the top of it.)
But the best was yet to come. There was...the Water Room!

Running water that pushed boats through! Balls that went down a drain and down through a tube to a tub below. Pumps that pushed water out! He got so excited when he saw that he could make the water come out. There were even plastic animal toys that looked like Loki! Alex identified the "Crab!" in a "conch shell" too. 

What splashy, boaty, wavy, messy fun!

As fun as the water room was, it seemed to pale in comparison to the giant dig-digs outside. They were remodeling the Bubble Yard. We even got to watch the construction workers while we had lunch at the cafeteria. They looked just like Alex's construction magnet play book!

The best part was that he got to play with Grandma through it all. Wow!

April 2, 2009

A Visit to Earthplace

[transcribed from video]

Today Alex and I went with Abuela, Abuelo and Abuela Mery to Earthplace in Westport, Connecticut. This nature museum had a fantastic children's room where Alex had a ball. First, he played with Abuela and Mery at a magnet table at which they made spiders and insects move. They played with a pin impression board at which Alex was amazed each time Abuela pushed the pins back out from the other side. He was wise to it when he ran around to the other side, though. When we passed a playroom with a tree, Alex declared “What's that? Is that a tree??” Then he saw the fish tank. “Fish!” he cried. We had to keep pulling him back away from it to see more things.

He really loved the guinea pigs in their animal exhibits. “Guinea pig!” he laughed. The snake – not so much.

His real favorite spot was the playroom in which he'd spotted the tree. There were TOYS there! That was a bigger attraction than the fishtank, I think. Well, that and the sound shore exhibit with the stuffed birds.   Then there was the really BIG attraction of the playground outside.  See, Earthplace is also a nursery school. They had climby-places and kitchens and playhouses.  We needed luck getting him out of there.  Of course, we couldn't without a stop at the gift shop where Grandpa bought him a can that bleats like a goat.  It cracked Alex up!

We stopped at an Italian restaurant for some dinner and he got a free cookie from a nice man there who bought one from the bakery next door.   He conked out on the way home, but woke up just in time to see Daddy when we picked him up from work.
 
What a big day!  
 

April 1, 2009

Happy Second Birthday, Baby!

[Transcribed from video]

Alex was stunned when he saw all of the presents wrapped with things Blink-Blink! When he opened his gift of the Blink-Blink shoes, he immediately pulled off his white shoes to wear them. Once he had his new Blink-Blink shoes on, he admired them with glee. His favorite gifts seemed to be his new Thomas trains and sets. “Percy!” he declared as he held him up the camera. When he got to his new Harold, he started to make helicopter noises “Putt-putt-p-p-p-putt!” No other gifts that followed, including his new book “Hug!”, could compete. Well, that was if the gifts were clothes or books. When he got to the new CAT “bulldozer” (bucket loader), it was a different story. He could identify his new “guitar” and “Thomas” in his new magnet book, along with the “ocean liner” at the docks in the book. He had lots of fun putting his new letter magnets on his new easel. He also got really excited and called out “Bunnytown!” when he saw the new DVD. He dashed to his chair to see the show. Soon he was dancing to the Bunnytown Hop and to “Makin' Music”.

I think he had fun at his second birthday.

March 28, 2009

In Search of Blink-Blink

Alex's birthday is at the end of March and I'm on the hunt for the Blink Blink.

"Blink Blink" is Alex's name for the Baby Einstein caterpillar, so called because it blinks twice in the production credits in the beginning of each video. He's gone cater-crazy lately. He wants me to play the videos just for the production credit sometimes and then gets up and walks away, leaving me to the rest of the video. He's attached to the box of the DVD collection because of the mega Blink Blink on the back. I've taken to drawing Blink Blink in crayon and cutting out the figure. He plays with the paper figure every day. Obviously, I'll have to make more of them to prepare for when it inevitably rips.

Aaaaaand, like any other time they acquire a cool property that they didn't develop, the Disney Corporation is utterly clueless in its marketing for things Baby Einstein. They. Don't. Make. A. Damn. Plush. Blink Blink.

They don't make a pull toy caterpillar either. They market ONE book about the critter and it appears to be available only in Europe, bound to cost me a fortune in currency exchange losses and shipping for what is probably an 8 page board book. Are they kidding me with this Blink Blink gap???? The thing appears twice in every single video with a toddler addictive sound signature, but they aren't marketing it to the hilt.

Have you seen anything of toddler-age attraction quality bearing the Blink Blink? If so, where???! Please! Must. Have. Blink Blink.

Thanks!
Lynne


Thanks Amy. I looked at those already and felt that the plush-like toys were too young. The radio-like toy might entertain for a while, but he already has an Elmo toy like that. Can you believe they don't make a regular ol' plush Blink Blink? If I wanted Mickey Mouse in dreads I could probably find that in plush, but noooooooo, they're hating on Blink Blink.

Kristy, yes, I caught that about that listing. The one I bid on had an opening of 8.50 with shipping quoted at 8 dollars and change, so I set my bid to max out at a total of 25 dollars. That's about all I'll take a hit on for it because it would be the second rocker he has and he doesn't really use the first one much.

But thanks for checking on that.

Oh my god! He'd be all over that 4 foot caterpillar!

Hmmmmm, should I be real dumb about this? Pay 75 dollars? Or learn how to sew real quick?

Maybe some of the other options....LOL

Thanks!

Thanks Kimmy, but he already has Alphabet Pal in green. My sister gave it to him last Christmas. He loves it now, but he spent a few months terrified of it. Eventually, he got curious about him again and went all out for the alphabet song it plays.

And he calls it "Ca'apillar" and then says "This like Blink Blink". Poor Edison doesn't get the same love.
He appears in two different ways. This is the flat cartoon image in the logo and how he appears in non-moving images:



The way he appears in the videos is a little more three-dimensional and he's drawn differently. He gives the appearance of a wooden pull-toy with wheels. He "inches" along with his middle section going up and down and his sections are of different sizes. He's shadowed in the videos. I can't find a YouTube link that shows it well.

Alex recognizes the flat Blink Blink too.

Posts: 8224 02/21/0905:22 PM) Reply Quote Edit Del More My Recent Posts	I agree! Lucy rocks the house! Yaaaaay! A 5 inch Blink Blink! Large enough that he'll dig it! Thanks Lucy!

 

Nap Strike Suspended

Thank you all for your suggestions in my Nap Strike Plea. Today was the sixth consecutive day of a nap. Though some have been delayed later than they would usually happen, they still happened.

The downside is that now bedtime is a nightmare, which was never the case when he napped before. Tonight is the first night of first putting him down at 8 PM. So far, a half hour of struggle has gone on - which seems to be typical now. Cross your fingers for me!

Thank you all so much!

Lynne

Lori, I started waking him up a full hour before he was used to getting up. He'd slipped into waking up at 8:30 - and me along with him. I jumped into waking at 7 AM as soon as I was able to manage it and then waking Alex at 7:30 AM. That left at least four hours between his waking and the usual time of going down for a nap. I'm finding though that he seems to need to be awake at least 4.5 hours, which is still a bonus if he naps at noon instead of 11:30. I introduced a naptime routine beginning at 11 AM. It involves my putting on a "quiet time" DVD - which in our case is either Baby Einstein's "Lullaby Time" or "Baby Shakespeare". Both of those DVDs have a very slow and mellow pace to them. I'll also read some of his "Quiet Time" books with him, those drawn with more muted colors and which contain just stories and no "fun" non-fiction things to learn or test himself. In our case, the books are "Peter Rabbit", "The Velveteen Rabbit" and a book about a puppy's bedtime entitled "Biscuit". If at all possible, I'd take him out for a short trip or walk making sure to return by 11 AM. Then, lastly, I cut the nap short from three hours now down to two by the end of the week. Out of all of them, I think waking him up earlier did the most work followed by the naptime routine "Quiet Time" for at least 30 minutes before the nap. I'll be bummed for you if you've already tried all of these, but here's hoping! Lynne I am happy to report that he fell asleep by 8:30! A half hour struggle seems to be the pattern right now. Sorry, I didn't see your follow-up Jodi. I seized on my early night to scrap! And now...it's time for Mommy's bedtime. There won't be any struggle coming from her. Good night all! Lori, sorry to hear the sleep schedule shifting didn't work. However, I will suggest that you try to work in another sleep schedule shift just for your sake. Within only two days, I felt a world of emotional difference just having that half hour in the morning to myself. For months, I was living behind the 8 ball, being woken by Alex as late as 8:30 AM, sometimes as late as 9. By that time, he could have possibly been awake for a half hour and there would be absolutely no time for myself from that point on. Having the half hour in the morning to have my coffee, read my email and some new posts on here, make my To Do list, clear the drainboard -whatever it was - made a WHOLE lot of difference for me come noon or 12:30 if Alex was not napping yet. Usually by 12:30, I'd be so fried, I'd just give up and take him out of his crib. Now, I'm not any longer because I don't feel as hassled and cheated. So, maybe just for you? Lynne No worries, Daniella. I know well of your separate inner circle of no-sleeping-through-the-night hell. I can say I never suffered that one beyond his newborn-ness. Alex's late schedule is a remnant of his newborness, since 8:30 PM and 8:30 AM used to be two of his eating times. Those were just two that stuck when he started giving up middle-of-the-night and early AM nursing. For me, the hell was his just not sleeping at any point between 8:30 AM and sometimes as late as 11 PM. So, yeah, I could get a full night's sleep of at least 7 hours. I would just about lose my mind during my waking hours. And BTW, I posted too soon. He didn't nap today.

Oh noes! Nap Striking!!!

Alex is into his fifth month of nap striking behavior and I'm at the end of my rope. Changing the time he naps only results in a night like this one in which it's 9:30 PM and he's showing no signs of going to sleep. Assigning "quiet time" in place of a nap has not worked. The only thing that seems to work is taking him out in the mornings, but in the dead of winter, it's just not practical for every day survival.

I know he needs the naps. On days he does not nap - which are about 5 days a week - he becomes completely irrational and the tantrums grow worse with each successive day of no nap. Today was the fourth consecutive day of no nap and he was just not himself at all this morning. We're talking screaming, kicking hysterical tantrum all because he wanted to play with the light switch in his nursery and I didn't understand him. That's NOT Alex - normally. But it's sure becoming Alex.

Have you ever cured this behavior? If so, how?

Thanks,
Lynne


I haven't been. I wasn't sure whether or not I was supposed to be because it's sleep. It's not like I can force him to do it. I used to spend 3 hours a nap strike day trying to get him to sleep. At around 2:30 I'd give up and just take him out, keeping him up until his normal bedtime. But those days are sheer hell. The 3 hours of trying exhausts me emotionally and then his mood goes downhill from about 4 PM on. By the time we get to bathtime at 8, he's usually shrieking and throwing things.

Then I just stopped exhausting myself for those three hours. If he didn't nap in the first 30-45 minutes of my trying, I didn't try again and whenever he threw a tantrum due to being tired, I'd just remind him of why he was tired and walk away. That wound up reinforcing the nap strike reward and it turned 2 days a week into 5.

Today, I figured I'd try moving the nap again, but keeping it to an hour and a half, which ended at 5 PM. It's now 10 PM and he's still up - just like it would be months ago when I first tried it.

Dan is with him, so I'm not ready to jump in front of a train yet, but I still can't relax when he's up.

Normally Alex is an excellent night sleeper. He started STTN at around 3.5 months and just stayed with it. He wakes up in the middle of the night on occasion, but it's rare.

It's just the days that he nap strikes that sometimes wind up being really late bedtimes. Usually it's when the cumulative sleep deprivation hits him after days of nap striking, like today. Then his mood is horrific. The tantrums are constant. There have been times I actually thought he was injured or ill because of how irrational he would get. I finally pieced it together when I started to keep track of his nap strikes. They were happening 4-5 times a week, like I suspected. It's when they last four days in a row, like today, that it just gets baaaaaad. Obviously, he can't get through without a nap.

Once he gets to sleep on a bad day like today, he'll stay asleep for 11 hours. Sucks for him and me that I've about had it with the nap strikes and he'll be getting 8.5 hours tonight.
Thanks all for your suggestions. Waking him up at 7:30 AM (an hour early) seemed to do the trick yesterday. But today, my husband didn't know that I wanted to get up at 7, so he changed the alarm. I woke at 8:19 when Alex woke me and he refused a nap again. My day has been utter misery since 12:30 PM - an hour past the time I put him down. I left him in his crib for two hours, like I often do - but he's not crying when I do. I really don't think I could do CIO just yet, because his five months of nap striking has me totally enraged at this point. (Today, I was actually yelling at him. ) I would grow past "totally enraged" in about 10 minutes of his crying and screaming to get let out of the crib. I know I would wind up screaming at him over it.

I think I'm going to try a multi-pronged approach combining a lot of your suggestions. I made it crystal clear to my husband that re-setting the alarm off from 7 AM means that my day will be sheer hell from 11:30 onwards. So, don't do it. I will be trying to establish a nap time routine just like I did for bedtime. The taking him outside in the mornings has worked in the past, but I can't risk his expecting it everyday when it's still February. I'm undecided on when I'll bring that in.

I can't believe I screamed at him today. I hate that the nap strikes have driven me so off the edge like that. He was throwing a screaming, crying tantrum (over what, I don't know) and I just went off on him. Within a minute of my screaming, his face twisted in a look of betrayal (I never yell at him) and he started blubbering "I sorry! I sorry!". So, yeah, all my screaming did was make him cry more which rode my nerves even more. I just stayed in the kitchen while he continued to cry and just continued with dinner prep.

I have to do something.

Thanks Sharon. Unfortunately that doesn't work for me. I hear it no matter what. Right now it's 10:23 PM on the US east coast and he's still not $#@!$@#%$ ing asleep because he didn't $#@~!$#ing nap today. He's not screaming right now, but if Dan tries to leave the nursery, I'm sure he will.

It's an unusually warm day in the NY area. I have my front door open for fresh air and I keep staring out wanting to pack a bag and find a hotel room for the night. That would cost Dan a sick day at work, but it beats the cost of repairing a wall after I put a chair through one.

Lynne
Thank you all. Last night (Weds) continued to be hell until about 11 PM. Alex is accustomed to sleeping 11 hours at night. If he goes to bed that late, he'll usually sleep at least 10 hours, but the sun eventually wakes him.

I tried a multi-blast approach today. I woke him up earlier than 10 hours after he went to sleep. Then I had him do an excercise video with me. (Baby Einstein). Then I took him outside to the store before his nap. Then we did a "wind down" involving soft music and a not-so-engaging book. He went down for his nap at 1 and I let him nap for only two hours.

There was some bitching at night bedtime, but not much.

Hopefully tomorrow, I can repeat this naptime routine - provided my husband understands that 8 AM is not 7 AM. (That's what he set the alarm for...sigh).

Alex was himself today. Agreeable. A decent eater. Patient with his toys. Independent. Obedient with "don't touch" areas. Thank you all so much for your support and ideas!

Oh, please, oh, please, oh please let this work!
Lynne

Philicia, no, not rambling at all. They're all very good suggestions. Since I know my temper cannot handle CIO right now, I have to try different approaches.

To answer your questions about his sleep habits before the nap striking started: He typically woke at 7:30, napped as early as 10:30 by the end of the summer, but it sometimes clung onto 11:30 like it was for so long. I think some of the reasons the nap moved up in July and August were the longer daylight hours and because we were spending such long days outside in the summer. When the days started growing shorter and the sun was rising later, his nap started going back to 11:30 which, incidentally has been a naptime since he was a newborn.

Alex typically sleeps 11 hours a night, going to sleep at 8:30 if waking at 7:30. He'll usually sleep 11 hours straight no matter what time he goes to bed. It was the single nap that wound up staying at 3 hours a day. When he consolidated down to one nap a day, when he was about 11 months old, he never shortened the period of time. I didn't interrupt it because I figured that if I wasn't having night bedtime issues, then he must need that amount of sleep.

After the nap striking behavior kicked in, his bedtime went "back" to 9:30 - like it had become last winter. I tried playing with the time for naps. I tried getting him to bed earlier at night. The nap strikes just continued and bedtime became a REAL nightmare when it had never been before. It seemed that the earlier I tried to get him to bed at night, the longer he would be up. If I aimed for his old 8:30, however, I could wind up with his sleeping by 9.

There have been several changes around here that have happened since September that I can think of. The first is the shorter daylight hours and the later sunrise. The second is that my husband started taking two classes a semester which resulted in his getting home really late two nights a week and having a ton of homework to do on weekends. It made Dan less available to Alex just at a time when the quality of his time with him had begun to improve. Alex started to experience going to bed at night without seeing Dan at all on those two days.

Now that Dan's class schedule has become two days a week in the middle of the day, he is only one hour later on each of those days. He's also been better about organizing his homework and study so that it doesn't take up all day on both weekend days. So, now, I think Alex doesn't want to miss Daddy.

I'm going to be working towards a more solid schedule for me and Alex, but I can't bet that my husband will be able to follow it. There are gains to be made if my husband would wake up earlier on weekdays, because those often correllate with nap days. For now, though, I've gone back to waking earlier than Alex to get my head at peace so I can handle the nap strikes better if they happen and then waking Alex earlier than he would normally get up since the Fall/Winter started.

Lynne

Philicia, it wasn't a matter of Dan getting upset about not seeing Alex (though he was disappointed). It was a matter of Alex getting upset that Dan wasn't home. I only just now got Alex used to eating dinner without Dan. When I started months ago, Alex would refuse to eat and just call for Dan all the time. As for my explaining the importance of a schedule to Dan, been there, done that and considering buying a time share in that far off land by now. He doesn't do it. I have tried a week or more at a time of putting Alex down at 7:30. It leads only to Alex then refusing to sleep until after 10, unfortunately. I don't have bedtime trouble if he does nap for three hours (or at least 2). I have bedtime trouble on the days he won't nap. It pretty much goes like this - IF the nap happens for at least 2 hours, I have a good chance of his falling asleep even as early as 8:30 PM. If the nap does not happen at all, that's when he'll be up as late as 11PM. Alex falls asleep on his own. He surprised us as a newborn having absolutely no problem transitioning to his own crib from the Pack N' Play in our bedroom. He only has a sippy of water, a blanket and some favored stuffed animals in his crib. He took better to bedtime once I put in a nightlight with a flicker effect. But, he actually doesn't mind the dark. He doesn't wake up in the middle of the night often. It would probably be optimal if I could bring his music back in there, but my old iPod has been out of commission for a while.