William

Emotional Rescue

Mar 14 2012

Recently Will has been riding an emotional rollercoaster that swings radically from mood to mood. It is almost like having a moody teenager in your house all day long. Really, already?

We are working on teaching Will how to get himself dressed in the mornings. Each morning he will come out of his room crying at least once as he is trying to get his clothes on. Even putting on his coat, which he has been able to do for months, now is a struggle each time. And don’t even get me started on having him take his coat off. “My coat not working,” is what I hear each time.

He used to make a few attempts at completing a task before he would get frustrated and ask for help. Currently, if things aren’t working out exactly as he intends, he starts to cry and gets frustrated.

Three is a hard age. He wants to do more than he has the skills to do and we are asking him to become independent with new tasks while playing catch up to his older brother. My philosophy is that I will help him as long as he is making an effort to try. If he isn’t really trying, then I am not inclined to help very much.

I don’t remember Jack going through the mood swings to this degree, but then Jack had a different disposition. Jack didn’t throw temper tantrums. I did have to be strong with Jack at times and force him to complete a task I knew he could do. That isn’t to say that he wouldn’t devolve into tears if something wasn’t working, but it wasn’t to this extent.

I remember one of our Occupational Therapists saying that kids get out of wack before they make a big developmental leap. This can affect their sleeping, eating, emotional state and motor skills. It can take a couple of weeks for things to straighten out and then you notice that all of a sudden they can do new things. I remember this happening in the past with both boys. She said that their brains and bodies get out of alignment and they get frustrated because they can’t make things work right. God knows there are days where I feel the same, and boy is it frustrating.

So I hope this is just a passing phase that he will breeze through quickly and hopefully this is not foreshadowing for the dreaded teenage years. Are you dealing with an emotional child? Any tips for those of us riding the rollercoaster?

Filed Under: parenting, William Tagged With: moody 2 Comments

Splat Goes the Lasagna

Mar 12 2012

Last Sunday evening the boys and I were having dinner. Jim left that morning for the week of business traveling, so it was just the kids and I. When Jim is out of town our dinners get a bit simpler, like that night’s leftover lasagna.

Poor Will had a cold, so he was very sniffily, tired and hadn’t eaten much all day. I wanted to make sure to get something other than fruit and goldfish into is tummy. Jack finished up his dinner and headed to do his chore of feeding the dog before he got his dessert. This usually prods Will along to finish up eating his dinner so he can get his “zert” as well.

During the meal I had helped him make up a few bites on his fork since he was having difficulty getting the noodles to stay on it. To help get him finished I put his last bite on his fork. In true Will style he waved his fork around enough that the lasagna slipped off onto his chair.

Now I was getting frustrated with him, as happens quite often, so I made up another bite which was a bit bigger than the last. After a bunch of threats (if you don’t eat this bite, then there will not be any dessert), he finally put the bite in his mouth. And almost immediately he started to gag. I guess the bite was too big.

He tried to keep eating it, but once he start to gag it usually doesn’t end well. And this was no exception. Before I knew it the entire unchewed bite of lasagna flies out of his mouth and lands on the floor about two feet away with a big SPLAT. I never knew lasagna would sound like that hitting the floor.

Part of me was mad at him for being stubborn and the other part wanted to crack-up because it was like a cartoon. I managed to keep my composure and put a smaller bite on his fork that he eventually did eat. Mulligan did me a favor and cleaned up Will’s projectile noodles, while Will got upset that she was eating his food. Well that will teach you kid, keep your food in your own mouth.

I am linking up with Mamalog and Mama Wants This for Blog Bash. I love this post because my humor actually comes across and I can go right back to that moment when I read it.

Filed Under: funny, William 8 Comments

Photo Friday

Mar 09 2012

Photo Friday – Walking to the bus stop

Today we walked to the bus stop and Will didn’t want to take his stroller. This is the first time in two years of walking to the bus stop with him that I haven’t pushed a stroller. I asked him if he wanted to hold Mulligan’s leash. It was such a cute scene, a boy and his dog. Every time she would stop to sniff something he would say, “No Mulligan, keep walking.”

Filed Under: Mulligan, Photo Friday, William 1 Comment

Photo Friday

Feb 24 2012

Photo Friday – Cousins

This week we are in California for Jack’s mid-winter break. It has been fun to see the cousins together. Jack loves talking with Finley and making him laugh. Just wait a few years and we will never be able to get them all to sit still for a photo like this.

Filed Under: Jackson, Photo Friday, William Tagged With: Finley, Oliver Leave a Comment

Pedal Pusher

Feb 22 2012

It is so hard to teach a child to ride a trike or bike, pushing the pedals. The process is very counterintuitive, having to push with alternating feet. I will contend that this is up there with potty training on some of the most difficult things to teach your children.
When Jack was learning to ride a trike I tried different methods to get him to understand the concept of pushing the pedals. I would walk in front of him and push on his toes. I would tell him, push right then left. I would push on his knees. I am not sure what finally worked, but he did learn.
My nephew Oliver preferred to not use the pedals on the trike and just walk his feet on the ground. He got so good at it he was really fast. As a result, his shins were always badly bruised from banging into the pedals; we used to cringe just watching him. Now he is riding a small bike with training wheels.
It is time to start teaching Will to pedal. He had great success with his balance bike last year, which we hope will help him become comfortable balancing on two wheels eventually. Our thought was to have Will skip the trike phase all together and jump right onto Jack’s old bike with training wheels. We don’t have Jack’s trike anymore (we didn’t like it anyway) and feel like it would be a waste to buy one for a few months of transition.
So how did you teach your child how to pedal without breaking your back. Does anyone have a good techniques?

Filed Under: Jackson, parenting, Uncategorized, William Tagged With: teaching how to ride a bike 1 Comment

Memories Captured

Feb 16 2012

I am taking part in a special monthly series called Memories Captured hosted by Mama Wants This and These Little Waves. It is fun to play with a photo and add the words. Enjoy the boys on Valentine’s Day with their chocit (as Will would say) lips.

Filed Under: Featured, Jackson, photos, William Tagged With: Memories captured 7 Comments

Photo Friday

Feb 03 2012

Photo Friday – Moose!

Every time I look at Will’s moose jammies do the moose face. You know when you put your hands on either side of your head with hands open and say “Moose!” (like my friend Kim and I used to do to each other) I tried to teach him to do it. Isn’t he funny!

Filed Under: Photo Friday, William Tagged With: moose Leave a Comment

A Video and A Project

Feb 01 2012

Today we took the boys up to the pass to ski. Jack had a lesson and Will got to try out the magic carpet for the first time. We had no expectations on what Will would be able to do on skis, but hoped that he would be able to stand up and balance. He did great with both, but has no concept of how to stop. Jack is doing well with his lessons too and working on making parallel turns.

This year I wanted to try to take a photo each day. The photos didn’t have to be anything amazing, but would get me to think about photography each. I was doing great until I got sick last week, since then I don’t think I have taken any photos. So in an attempt to get back on the horse I am participating in Fat Mum Slim’s February Photo-a-day Challenge. I will post my daily photos on our Facebook page. Please like our page and check out the photos.

Filed Under: photos, video, William Tagged With: Photo-a-day challenge, skiing 4 Comments

Photo Friday

Jan 12 2012

Photo Friday – Hoodie

Will looks so cute in his hoodies. He doesn’t mind having his hood up. We were finishing folding laundry the other day in my room and he was playing in the curtain.

Filed Under: Photo Friday, William 2 Comments

Years of Santa

Dec 21 2011

I was looking through the last several years of Santa photos. We have a frame that holds three years worth. It is really fun to see how the boys have changed.

Jack has grown up a lot in the last year, but still has the same cute smile. I am so glad we took the photo for this year when we did. Although you can see the bruise on his forehead, it hadn’t started to give him black eyes. Will has yet to smile in one. He gets closer each year, but no smile. I love the one of him as a baby with his huge cheeks and upside smile.

We don’t have any screaming Santa photos (don’t hate me), just very serious faces. We haven’t been consistent about going to the same place for photos, so we have had some really good Santas and some not as good. I like the ones from the last few years. Enjoy the last five years of Santa photos.