Thursday, August 4, 2011

Being Home and questions for the internets

In the past week, I've been home for 2 days with each child. Both Maggie and Cam were hit with the current bug that is going around - sore throat and fever. I'm saying this is a bit of a caveat, but it is good, sometimes to have some one on one time with a sick kid. Remember, that I work full time, so my kids are in daycare full time. And our weekends are usually filled with fun things for both grown-ups and babies - especially in the summer. So, having a few days where they had to lay low, and I was with them for 48 hours straight - was fun to see the little people they are growing into.

Maggie was home with me last week, and without her brother around, is a super chatterbox! I never get to see that, because Cam is always talking over her. And a huge cuddler. I think a lot of it was being sick, and she wanted to be close, but once the fever broke and she was obviously feeling better - she was running around the living room, playing with all the toys - bringing them over and showing them to me... just a bundle of fun. But, interesting to watch, no one, NO ONE can make that girl smile like her brother. She was SO excited for him to get home from school and play with her - warms my heart.

The last two days, I've been home with Cam, who was hit a lot harder with this. Tuesday, he woke up with a fever of 102.5, and just laid on the couch and watched movies and slept. He was so out of sorts being sick. But yesterday? Yesterday he was a little slow in the morning, but then was full out, talking a mile a minute, and making up all these hilarious pretend games! So much fun to watch.

But - now I have some questions for you all. First. When Aaron and I are trying to talk about something - Cam always, always interrupts us. If we try to ignore him, he just gets louder and louder and louder until we are forced to stop what we are talking about and listen. In the car, if we are talking, he starts singing to himself and also gets louder and louder until it just isn't possible to talk. Many times I'll stop our conversation to ask him what he'd like, but other times, I'd just like to talk to Aaron and finish a freaking thought! But I love it that Cam is so happy to be with us and share - and sometimes I think maybe he's to young to explain about not interrupting. Thoughts? What do you guys do?

And pooping. My theory of just waiting until Cam was ready for potty training has worked so well. He pees in the potty all the time. No accidents, no issues. But he does it standing up like a 'big boy', which I think may be some of the issue. He never wants to try to poop in the potty, usually doing it in the morning in his diaper. Is this another thing I should just wait until he is ready? I'm fine with him wearing a diaper at night - but wondering what others did.

The last thing is bedtime/naps. Cam is a real pain now about sleeping. He pretty much never naps on Saturdays, and when he was home with me, once he was feeling better, he didn't want to nap. Last night, we didn't get him down to bed until 8, and he stayed awake until 9:20, using his pillow as a guitar, jumping up and down - until finally Aaron went in and read him another book and he went to sleep. Are naps over? If he doesn't nap, he is a bit of a basket case in the evening.... but he'll fall asleep faster (except last night). Sometimes we send him up for 'quiet time' which isn't really all the quiet, he sings and jumps around his bed like a monkey - but I don't get involved. A few times I've laid down with him and he will eventually nap - but that seems like a bad practice and sometimes I don't want to nap either!

8 comments:

HereWeGoAJen said...

When Elizabeth interrupts us, we usually stop talking and tell her to wait, and then go back to her. We are also working hard on the concept of patience. Eh, it's slow going, but we are getting there.

And I can't help with potty training, except to say that with Elizabeth, I think it is getting to be a power thing. She realizes that I can't MAKE her poop in the potty so she's not going to. I am going to drop the subject for a while and just let her do what she wants. Hopefully when we revisit, she'll have changed her mind.

Serenity said...

O does the same thing. We do the same thing Jen does - stop talking and ask him to wait his turn. We end up doing it more quickly than we'd like (i.e. we get a sentence in after), but he's grasping the concept of waiting for his turn to speak.

We've also told him that if two adults are talking, instead of just talking himself, he should say "excuse me." Whenever he does that, we stop talking to attend to him.

The potty training thing - O is great with pee right now, not so good with poo. I think it's a feeling thing - they're learning what it feels like when they need to pee versus poo. He's definitely got the pee feeling down and not so much the pooping.

The most success we've had is when I recognize that O has to go (he's walking on tiptoes and seems nervous) I tell him "I think you have to go poop. Let's sit on the potty now! Hurry!"

We've bribed him with toys (he got Red from the Cars movie the first time he pooped on the potty), too. And lately he's all about doing things himself, so I leave the bathroom on his request to "give him privacy." That's what worked for us the past three or four times he's gone poop on the potty.

And with naps? Yes. If O naps during the day (i.e. he still does at school), he does NOT go to sleep until nearly 9pm at night. Daycare was shut down last week and he didn't nap at all. All week. Which makes evenings easier because he's asleep in minutes, but the afternoons are ROUGH.

My guess is that, with O, he's not QUITE ready to give up the full nap during the day, but an hour and a half means that he's not tired when it's bedtime. It's totally lame.

Deborah said...

A lot of times I find that if I stop and talk to my son for a minute, he'll let me talk to the other adult uninterrupted for awhile. Like if I'm talking on the phone and he tries to get my attention, I say "I'm talking to Aunt K/Daddy/etc. Do you want to say hi?". He'll get on the phone and say a few things, then I get to talk in peace. Also, I just try to make sure I'm spending enough time having conversations where he's included. Sometimes if I'm with an adult who doesn't have kids, they'll try to just talk the whole time without giving J a chance, and that's not right. But I like the others' ideas too!

Heather said...

The interrupting thing gets better, but at 7 years my daughter still has to be reminded. Frequently.

And naps were so tough for us at that age. I think she gave up naps at home around 2.75 years old. However, she still took naps at daycare until she was 4. This made for tough evenings, but when I talked to her provider she had a point I could not argue. There were about 4 kids around the same age, and if they didn't get a break from each other the afternoons were horrible. Awful. Telling them to move away from each other did not help. At home my daughter could have quiet play time in her room to recharge. Not so at daycare. So, we just went with the long bedtime routine for that year or so. I'm sure we will do the same with her little sister next summer.

Carrie27 said...

If he isn't going to nap, I would suggest putting him to bed earlier. Is he napping at daycare during the week?

Erin said...

Cece!!!! I love hearing about your life. Here's my 2cents:
- On Interrupting we did the hand hold - When Tiller and Fitz want to say something they come and squeeze my hand 3 times - I respond with 3 squeezes. It's like morse code. I wrap up the thought with the grown-up then they get their turn. with the squeezes they know I"heard" them with out having to respond immediately.
- On napping - Both the kids gave up naps early. We had quiet time in their room. We would get books on CD from the library and play them in their room. Usually they got so into listening that they would play pretty quietly to concentrate. Works for bedtime, too or in the car.

XOXO - Erin

A New Beginning said...

I like the ideas on the interrupting. I think we will try that.

With the pooping thing, my husband pretended to make one her favorite stuffed animals poop on the potty. After her monkey did it, she did it. No idea why, but it worked for us. I think she was scared to begin with.

BrandiH said...

We have gotten Lillian to at least say excuse me when we are talking. Normally she will first try and interrupt, but we ignore it and then she says excuse me. Now we are working on the "when it's your turn to talk we will tell you" part.

If you figure out a way to get him to poop on the potty let me know cause we have the same problem!

I would suggest trying no nap for a few days and see if he gets better with getting grumpy in the evening. Another thing to try is to take any "play" things out of the room when napping or going to bed.