Chocolate Easter Bunny

Grafton demonstrates how to eat a Chocolate Easter Bunny. (Thanks for the bunny, Baba and Grandpa!)

Sleeping in the Bed We Made

We've been dealing with a recent pattern of disagreeable behavior on Grafton's part. At 4am. Every morning. Sometimes earlier. He calls out to us from his crib, "Mommy, I want to sleep in your bed" (yes, we've given into letting him do this for too long, and he's grown used to it). We tell him it's too early and that he needs to go back to sleep. He starts to whimper. Then he tells us "I need my blankets up" (yes, we've always gone into pull up his blankets). We tell him he can pull them up himself, now that he's a big boy. And he can. But this never works. His whimpers turn into a full cry, and gradually grow louder. "I need music" (we've often let him listen to music when he's trying to fall asleep in the evening).  We tell him it's too early in the morning for music, and that he needs to try to sleep some more. The crying turns to all-out screaming. Next, "my blankets are on the floor!" (yes, he knows that in the past, this forced us to get out of bed to help him stay warm on a cold winter night).  We tell him that he shouldn't have thrown his blankets out of his crib. After 10 minutes or so of crying out for Mommy, he switches strategies, and starts calling out for "Daddy", making the same requests. By now the screaming is persistent and mostly unbearable to any adult who happens to have functioning auditory nerves. We ignore him. 10 minutes more of screaming. We hold fast to our strategy of letting him "learn on his own" that he cannot get us out of bed whenever he wants. Another 10 minutes goes by. Then another. It's intolerable. No one is sleeping and we're all miserable. Pillows over the head barely attenuate the 115 decibels emanating from the neighboring room. But the lesson must be learned, and we continue to ignore his tantrum. We ruminate in our exhausted state how incredible it is that a 2.5 year old can scream for 45 minutes (and longer!) without tiring. And without learning that it will not obtain the desired effect. That's probably because after about 30 minutes or so, he almost always wins. One of us drags our tired bones out of bed to calm him down, allowing him make peace with the fact that it's still sleepy time for all of us. So of course, he's learned that he merely needs to go on screaming for as long as it takes, confident that his "victory" is inevitable. But finally, last night, we stuck to our guns, and remained silent through an endless hour of toddler tantrum. And it worked--he finally gave up. He went back to sleep on his own, and we all slept in until 8am. Let's hope he's starting to learn that tantrums don't always work, because it's hard a lesson to teach.

Danger Avoidance

One evening during the middle of this past winter, Neva and Grafton were driving together on Park St, behind Mt. Holyoke College, when a deer jumped over a snowbank and darted across the street right in front of their car. Neva broke hard and nearly hit the deer, but the car stopped just in time. Neva and Grafton watched the frightened deer stumble away over the opposite snowbank. For weeks afterwards, every time Neva or I were driving with Grafton on that same street, he would remind us, "Don't hit the deer!"

Grafton is definitely a safety conscious young fellow. He remembers most of the cautionary advice we tell him, and often repeats it to us later on. As expected, the warnings we give him most frequently revolve around not touching hot stoves and grills, and letting hot food cool off before eating it. I guess some of it has registered with him, since one evening while trying to dish up some steaming ravioli with my hands onto Grafton's plate, he lovingly yelled at me, "Don't get burned, Daddy!"

To Brush or Not to Brush

Recently, we had a particularly difficult morning with Grafton. One of the struggles was trying to get him to brush his teeth. He was throwing a fit, and remained defiant. Trying to calm him down, I asked, " Grafton are you angry? Are you sad? How do you feel?" To which Grafton responds, "I don't feel anything!"  I couldn't stop myself from chuckling at the precociousness his declaration.  And so he yelled back at me, "It's not funny at all!" But it wasn't long before he turned his emotions around and was happy once more. Realizing he had been unnecessarily stubborn, he told us, "I wanna brush my teeth aaaalll day." Oh, the vicissitudes of toddlerhood...

Sicko

We had a pretty good run with Grafton's health so far this (calendar) year, and even through the entire winter. But the little guy is now sick with a fever and a cold. His parents are thankful he didn't get sick during our recent vacation to AZ. He had a minor cold with crusty eyes at the beginning of the trip, but got better after a few days, while his parents' health worsened. The adults came back home with full-on colds, and we thought Grafton had passed it on to us. But now it looks like we passed something new on to him instead. Ugh!

"Wow"

The title of this blog entry was Grafton's reaction to first seeing the Grand Canyon. Rolling out of bed at around 5:30am (8:30am EDT), we threw on our clothes and headed out the door to catch our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon during sunrise. This photo was taken at Yavapai Point.

What Mommy Missed

Work duties had Mom flying off to Utah today. So it was just the boys at home today, left to fend for ourselves. Except we didn't spend much time at home. Upon picking up Grafton from school, we drove  to a playground at an elementary school in Granby. But we struck out. The playground was surrounded by a veritable moat, riddled with pools of water many inches deep around all the play equipment, including a small ocean at the base of the slide. We decided to try another outdoor spot to play, and headed to Defresne Park. But from the road it didn't look accommodating either, as it was still surrounded by snow. So we did a quick drive around Granby, but ended up back at Mt Holyoke College, where we usually do our evening walks.

Filled with Goldfish, Grafton was ready to burn some energy. He ran and ran, challenging his Dad to keep up with him. We stopped for a bit to enjoy the view of the raging waterfall of the Upper Pond dam. We soon reached the amphitheater, walking onto the large stage, and then climbing up the stairs (Grafton even led with his left foot a few times while climbing). Looking back, Grafton saw the stage and told me, "I wanna sing a song on the stage." As I followed him down the uneven stairs, he demanded that I sit down and watch! He climbed on the stage and started singing Old McDonald Had a Farm while dancing around. He really seemed to enjoy himself. When he finished, he demanded that I put on a performance as well, which of course, I was compelled to do. Fortunately, for me, no one was around. As the show came to a close, the cloudy sky opened up to reveal the radiant and uplifting light of the setting sun. Unable it to see it directly, I implored Grafton to run up the stairs with me so that we could catch the sunset.

After enjoying the transient light, we headed back to our car, Grafton in my arms. The car was parked across the street from the District 2 fire station, and I noticed that one of the garage doors was open. The garage bays were all lit up, and I could see a fire engine inside, and I knew Grafton would enjoy seeing it up close. We headed over. Peering inside, there was a fireman working on a small truck. He invited us in! I thanked him, and brought Grafton in for a quick tour. I pointed out the firemens' jackets, boots, and oxygen tanks, and of course the fire engines! He quietly took it all in, remaining uncharacteristically speechless. As we passed by the welcoming fireman, we thanked him again, when he asked Grafton if would like a fireman's hat. Grafton didn't answer, so I graciously accepted the offer for him. With hat in hand, preparing to leave, the fireman asked Grafton if he wanted to sit in a fire truck! Shyly, Grafton whispered a low, "yeah." After opening the door, Grafton bolted up into the back of the cab and jumped up into one of the seats, carefully checking out his surroundings. Of course, he didn't want to get out, but after a little while I lifted him down. Apparently, it was a slow evening at the fire house, because Grafton was then offered to ring the (decorative but functional) bell on the front of one of the fire engines, which he did. Then the fireman opened another garage door bay, got in the second fire truck, and put on the emergency lights for Grafton's enjoyment. I'd say Grafton was enjoying all of this, but there was more! Next, Grafton was offered to get in the drivers seat of the fire truck, which he enthusiastically accepted. Up in the seat, Grafton was turning the steering wheel and forcefully manipulating the turn signal (I thought he was going to break it). I thanked the firemen a few more times, but on our way out, he brought us to the ambulance parked outside, which Grafton also got to "drive", and then we were allowed to peek in the back, where we saw the empty stretcher and all of the medical equipment. What a tour! We were invited to come back anytime.

After our long evening out, we finally headed home for a quick lasagna dinner, a book, and then off to bed.

Mom's away tomorrow evening as well, so I'll have to figure out how the two boys can have even more fun tomorrow.