Other people have been watching my kid a lot lately. The nanny should really write her own guest post about how they went for a ride on the BUS! the other day, with another nanny and the 3-year-old girl she watches. The two kids held hands, as soon as they got on board she started singing Wheels on the Bus (his dream girl!) sat together, gazed out the window. The library (their destination) was closed but there is an extensive photo record on nanny’s i-phone of the two toddlers trying to break in the front door. Weneedah KEY! says Jonah.
Scott has Jonah today. ALL DAY! I vividly remember a time when I couldn’t possibly handle such a thing. That whole first year and a half or so of life when I couldn’t barely stand to be separated from the boy. When I agonized over missing a feeding and worried that my breastmilk production would decrease, when I pumped every day (ugh ugh ugh) and still he’d drink the entire freezer stash in that one day.
This morning I worked. Drove over to San Francisco to conduct an interview for a charity newsletter. I get to meet the BEST people this way. Am loving my job. I have two clients with a total of seven newsletter articles between them to put together in the next week, so I’m going to be pretty busy. Good thing it’s so much easier these days to hand off the kid. Though I miss him. I almost stopped by the park and surprised the two of them during this hour off but I decided to stick with the plan because, hey, a little mommy-alone-in-a-cafe-blogging is good for all of us, too.
Now that I’m here, what else is there to tell?
Nap times are getting better. In Jonah’s usual form, our nearly fool-proof technique of driving him to sleep at naptime and transferring him to the crib that was going so great for a while stopped working, or rather decreased in efficacy until it was down to a 50% success rate. Not good enough. So we took the plunge, doing a modified nighttime routine at naptime. We’ve been at it for about a week and there is definite progress. Or rather, Scott’s been at it for a week. I am still firmly out of the naptime/bedtime business. Scott’s doing a great job. He’s also a little possessive of it. Eventually he’ll train me in, so that we can have that flexibility but it’s also nice that Scott has this clear job that he’s good at and that they both enjoy (since it involves fun things like books and songs and snuggling). So much of the year and a half was about me doing whatever needed to be done because I was either the only one who could (nursing, bedtime routine) or I was unwilling to let anyone else do it.
I guess we’ve hit a milestone because I keep thinking about that first year and a half. He’s what, 21 months now? He’s much more a kid. The baby and early toddler era has ended. He is taller, his face has changed. Will have to take a new photo to post.
The 2-year-old is also peeking through. Whining and fussing over details large and small when SOMETHING, ANYTHING is not going how he would like. From the way a toy is laying on the floor through not wanting to take a bath and whatnot. Hello struggle for autonomy. And yes, it helps that he can express himself but funnily enough, when he gets upset he often doesn’t speak. He could tell us what is wrong, but he just CAN’T. It’s like the brain fritzes and all that comes out is “aouuuuuuuuuuuuuungh!”
It’s not that bad really. Nails across a chalkboard for example is worse.
More stories of his adorableness and brilliance will follow in the next post. Now it’s time for me to meet another mom-friend-whose-husband-is-watching-the-kid for lunch. Wahooo!
Glad you had a day to yourself. A little “me time” can do wonders.
Boo for the closed library. I love taking my son to the library on the bus. It’s almost close enough that we could walk, but the bus is so much more fun.
Yay for nap progress!
And the expressing yourself in words when you’re upset is a hard thing to learn. My son was an early talker, too. He is a wonderful and creative storyteller and asks all sorts of interesting questions (from “what happens if the Decepticons don’t leave Earth alone?” to “why is everything always changing?” – both recently asked as he’s in bed getting ready to go to sleep). Even now at 5, he still needs coaxing as sometimes when I ask him what’s wrong he’ll reply. “I’m not sure I can explain it.” I know I feel that way sometimes, too.