Smithdahl Adventures » Difficulties

My Monk-ish child

ian — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:53:00 +0000

One of Gabe’s favorite shows is Monk (mainly for the theme song), which I think is weirdly appropriate because he can be extremely meticulous. Today he was trying to line up all of his cars, which is a common hobby of his. But he was trying to do it on the couch, and was finding it very difficult. He himself so worked up that he was on the verge of a tantrum! Luckily I was able to get the little things lined up to his satisfaction before he totally flipped out. But it was a close call.

Gabriel’s new word

ian — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:07:56 +0000

“Dit.” Steph and Ian are hoping that he means “this.” It’s hard to tell based on text. He uses it when he’s pointing at things, but he also uses it when he drops something. He uses it mostly when he’s playing with himself and in his own little creative world, so it’s really hard to know what he means.

:: grimace ::

Gunky eyes can be a good thing

ian — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:53:45 +0000

Gabe has developed a heavy case of encrusted eyeballs, but like the old story said, “Good? Bad? Who knows?” It doesn’t seem to bother him at all, and mostly what it’s done is kicked him out of daycare and forced him to spend two days at home alone with Mommy and Daddy. This is a bit trying in terms of the both of us getting our work and studying done — but it’s really nice to spend the extra time with the boy. He’s in a good humor most of the time, and just recently learned how to say “I love you, too!” (although he still hasn’t said “I love you”, strangely). So it’s nice for now. We’re just hoping he gets better by Friday, when both of us have to be at work or school for meetings.

Gabe 1, Daddy 0

ian — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:53:47 +0000

Last night, Gabers woke up at midnight and went twelve rounds with the old man. And I have to say, the little tyke got the best of me. I tried rocking him to sleep, reading to him, warm milk, lying in bed with him, sitting in the rocking chair, watching soporific television shows, letting him run around to get the energy out, playing with him, talking with him, scolding him for being awake, feeding him, changing his diaper… and probably half-a-dozen things that I’ve forgotten. Finally at around 4:30 in the morning, he dozed off a bit, but he never really went to sleep enough that *I* could quite sleep exactly either.

He’s a tough little kid. I’m worried about what’ll happen when he gets older.

And poor Mum was downstairs slamming away on a killer research paper all night. So none of the three of us got any sleep — Mum didn’t even get the two hours of dozing that me and Gabe got. She’s been wide awake for more than 30 hours, and she’s still got work to do tonight! Yup. Tonight should be interesting.

Do I have to?

ian — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:31:18 +0000

The last few days, Gabe has been a bit of a rugrat. At daycare he’s been bullying other kids, seemingly just to test their reaction and see them cry. And at home, he’s been increasingly whiny and petulent. I’m hoping that it’s just because he’s readjusting to his normal life after getting used to a different house and different people during a long, wonderful holiday vacation in South Dakota. If not, Mommy and Daddy are going to have to brush up on the discipline section of Parenting for Dummies!

Waking up at 3am

ian — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:33:09 +0000

For the last week or so Gabe and Daddy have both been consistently but only just barely sick. This means he wakes up every night sometime between midnight and 4am. It’s been going on for so long now that it almost seems normal, but I think that everyone in the family (including Gabe) is a bit zombified. Mommy is now coming down with it, but I’m hopeful that Gabe and Daddy will be over it in the next few days, and maybe sleep schedules can return to the comparatively normal*.

* “Normal” involves Gabriel going to sleep at about 7 or 8, after which point parents are allowed to watch TV. Mommy falls asleep on the couch, watching Law and Order at around midnight. Daddy continues programming and drawing until about 2am, then he wakes up Mommy and they go to bed. Gabers works as an alarm clock waking up one or both parents at 6am. The other parent wakes up at 7am, and everyone is out the door / starting work by 8am. My point is that even the “normal” schedule has Mommy and Daddy getting between 4 and 6 hours of sleep a night… not very healthy guys!

Teething… :(

ian — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:47:35 +0000

The last few nights Gabe has been irritable when he gets home: crying and just pointing vaguely at things instead of letting us know what he wants (“Daddy, I want something in the fridge! Just keep trying things until I stop crying!”). By itself that’s a little unsettling — but worse is that, except for last night, he’s woken up at between midnight and 2am every night this week! Once up, he’ll only sleep on Mommy or Daddy’s shoulder, and even then he sleeps very fitfully. He kicks his legs constantly and gets out of bed / off the couch every hour or so. Needless to say this has been a bit trying on Mommy and Daddy. On top of everything else, it coincided with Mommy having a big paper due on Wednesday of this week.

Luckily he had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. So, we at least have a fair idea that nothing serious is wrong. Doctor thought it was teething trouble, so we’ve been giving his teething medicine and chew toys, with a little success (last night he slept through the night). The other good news is that his teeth coming in are gorgeous. Hopefully he gets his Mom’s perfect teeth…

“NO!”

Stephanie — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:01:31 +0000

Well. It’s finally arrived. The dreaded time in every parents’ life when that little bundle of joy learns, and masters the word “no.” Gabe’s time has arrived. He learned the word about a week ago now, and it is in full force. He says it all the time. Last night he was eating cheese, and I asked if he would share some with mommy. He looked at me, shook his head and said, “no, no, no,” and then pushed my hand away. Then, I asked him if we should change his diaper. He looked at me and said “no, no, no.” Then, I asked him if it was time for night, night. He said, “NOOOOOOOO” and ran to daddy for salvation. Now, you might be saying to yourself that all of these propositions were pretty horrible, and Gabe can hardly be blamed. While that may be true, you will have to trust me that it is, by far, his favorite word. He even practices saying no in the car, just so he’s prepared when it’s needed. On Monday night, from his car seat I could hear him he very calmly repeating over and over again, “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no….” for a good five minutes. And, despite his clear understanding of the word, he refuses to say the word yes. The power of no, must be utterly obvious even to a 17-month old. Oh, well! At least it wasn’t his first word.