Fun song: Cartoons' "Witch Doctor"

John loves the "ooh eee ooh ah ah" part, which showed up in a Diane Ferlatte song... so I found this version when I was searching for a download of the whole song.
I can't find this song except on imeem. Even though there are links to iTunes and Amazon, neither has this song. Imeem has an mp3 stream, but I don't know if I can download that onto my mp3 player... (if anyone knows how I can, tell me!)

It's fun anyway, I'll let you know what John thinks once I have a chance to play it for him!

Witch Doctor - Cartoons

ETA:
Ok, this song can be purchased and downloaded from the amazon.co.uk site, but of course I can't do that directly. How can Jessica buy it and get it to me?

Can he do it? Yes he can!

Just a quick note for all the grands on what John is up to lately...
This weekend he was able to zip up his orange windbreaker, twice, without help, including starting the zipper all by himself! (Can you tell I'm impressed?) It took about 10 minutes of working at it, but he did it.

He can put his shoes and socks on without help, although he consistently gets the shoes on the wrong feet.

He is getting better at brushing and flossing.

The toilet training is coming along. He is very good at school and about 50% successful at home too! Haven't had any dry mornings lately though...

He loves "reading" books out loud now, both to himself and to us. He recites the ones he knows as he turns the pages, and the others he makes up as he goes along.

This will be a tough-ish couple of weeks on John, because Tony is starting tech for his show at school (Two Gentlemen of Verona, the musical) and will start being absent for bedtime and then dinner and bedtime and weekend. We'll get through it, like we always do, it's just harder on John when he doesn't get enough face-time with Daddy!

You wanted him, so here he is!!!!

Showing his cracker bunnies.



Playing with a rubber band.

No longer playing with a rubber band.


Showing you the hook where he can hang up his coat by himself!


Taking a picture of his hook.


Hanging around at home.





At the zoo:





John loves air hockey, even when he's losing! This was at the Chuck E. Cheese we stopped at near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on our drive to Dallas at Christmas. The gigantic rocking horse in the background was actually very cool. The frequency at which it rocks was very soothing. I rode that one with John about 5 times!


Here is John the awesome playground outside the zoo.

Things other than sleep

But a small sleep note first.
We are back on track for bedtime. He stays in his bed when we leave with only a couple of minutes of crying-protesting. We go in after he's asleep to put up the rail, but he hasn't fallen out again so far.
So we're good on bedtime again, until the next thing! Yay!

His favorite story these days is "Three Little Pigs," he says "Sing the Big Bad Wolf."

Just as Feiste and our friends the Brantinghams told us, John is starting to potty train himself. He often (2-3 times a day) goes on the toilet. We're not really doing anything formal, no stickers or M&Ms, just praising him when he does it. Twice he woke himself up in the morning in time to have a dry diaper overnight. He has done it at school, and he usually does it before his bath.

His imaginative play often involves putting Tony and I through some aspect of the daily routine with the parent-child roles reversed. Tony was very happy that John put him down for a nap the other day!

We have Zoo Tots tomorrow morning at the Greenville Zoo. It's a 45-minute program that involves about 20 minutes of "free-play" at various stations in the education room and a 20-minute program led by a Zoo intern. Last week, the kids (about 10 in the class) got to see a Lorikeet (small parrot-type bird) close up. I was pretty disappointed in the thinness of the program and the leadership skills of the intern, but we got what we paid for, which was to see an animal (besides a dog or cat!) close up.

Our family dog walks our quiet now because John rides in the stroller and listens to the Diane Ferlatte CD. His favorites are "Down by the River," in which a crocodile learns that he can't eat Hen, because she is his sister; and "Turtle Song," in which a baby turtle uses reverse psychology on a coyote, a la Brer Rabbit.

He is getting better at taking turns. Yesterday he and his friend James jumped on James's trampoline and they were both taking turns on their own, without me or Kerri having to prompt them. It was a beautiful thing! The other night, John, Tony, and I played a Memory-style game with his construction vehicle memory cards. Instead of turning the cards upside down, we left about 9 pairs face up, but mixed up, and we took turns picking matching pairs. It was pretty fun.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I know it's been a long time. I have misplaced the camera...

Sleep update

Bedtime went pretty well tonight. He was worn out from a late, abbreviated nap and from playing at friend James's house. (Thank you again, so much, Miss K!!)

We listened to "My Brother," a story song on Diane Ferrlate's "Knick Knack Paddy Whack 2" while he was in the tub. He loves that CD!!! And he listens to it so quietly whenever we play it!

We read two books and then sang "Bob the Builder" twice. It would have been perfect, but he had a milk sippy cup, and we don't let him keep that in bed, so I had to wrest it away from him, causing a meltdown. He pushed out the rail, checked the door, then headed back to bed. The rail was pulling the Thomas bed down, so he called for me to fix it (which I didn't), but he figured out how to get back in bed anyway.

About 9pm, I went in to replace the rail so he didn't fall out again. Evidently he was still awake or in a lucid state of the sleep cycle, because he popped up and said "Stay here." I fixed the rail, told him I couldn't, and let Keats go in the room. (He was camped outside.) He calmed down pretty quick and went back to sleep.

So overall, we're doing very well. So far. As yet. Knock wood.

Beddy-bye

We have crossed the Rubicon.
On Monday, John connected the skill of pushing out his bed rail and his desire to not to be left alone in bed. That night I sat in his room until he fell asleep. At 2am that morning he pushed out his bed rail, gathered his Bee, and headed for the door. I went in, and after some negotiations on both sides, decided to let him sleep on the futon. I stayed on the floor next to the futon until he went to sleep.

I have been worrying about this moment for as long as he has been in "his big-boy crib." And I have read and read online about what to do. Most everybody concurs that the first step is explaining to the child that he needs to stay in bed. Fine, no problem. Then at bedtime, each time the child gets out of bed, you pick him up, return him to his bed, and do not make a fuss, either saying nothing or "It's time to stay in bed." All the while remaining positive yet detached.

I'm sure that would work if you had a child that will stay in the bed long enough for you to walk away after you have put him there. John is not that child.

So our second recourse, discussed in advance, is to aim for keeping him in his room. My stance: you can't force him to stay in bed (unless you hold him down, which I am not willing to do) but you can force him to stay in his room. I thought that Tony and I were in agreement with this strategy and that the plan was worked out.

Well, we discovered on Tuesday night that the parenting team had semantic differences, expectation differences, and locked-door tolerance differences.
That is, Tony and I got into a yelling fight while trying to put John to bed on Tuesday. We came to a ceasefire after John was finally asleep, which took 10 minutes of holding the door shut, Tony holding John in the bed and then sitting with him for another 10 minutes, and a recitation of "The Gruffalo" thrown in.

Last night (Wednesday) the plan was to go back to our normal bedtime routine, which Tony insisted had been working fine. I agreed, but was skeptical, now that the breach had been made. In a generous move, Tony granted me leave to attend a movie at bedtime ("Inkheart"). When I returned, John was asleep. Bedtime was not good, and Tony ended up holding John's door closed for 20 minutes. John spent time knocking on the door, trying to open the knob, and putting his face down by the crack at the bottom and calling for "Daddy." He finally went back to his bed and fell asleep. I counted the whole thing as the first step in the right direction, because John figured out to go back to his bed after only 20 minutes. It was very hard on Tony, though.

I am feeling a mixture of uneasiness and guarded optimism about tonight (Thursday). Tony is scheduled to leave "after bedtime" to go to Hilton Head, leaving John and me to work this out on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Tony is worried that I will call him up at 2 in the morning freaking out with John still awake. However, I feel that Tony laid the groundwork last night, and as long as we are agreed that keeping him (I hate to say "locking" but that's what it is) in his room is the right way to go, I am pretty OK at hardening my heart enough to get through...

I am going to pick up childproof doorknob covers today, so that hopefully I don't have to hold the door shut like Tony did last night.

I would like reassurances that we are not being cruel by locking him in his room. He has a nightlight, all his usual accouterments (Bee, giraffe, owl, Thomas, and bear), and water. Since he's still in diapers, we're not withholding toilet privileges.

_____________________________________________
Later that same night (Thursday).
We had the usual protests when Tony and I left John's room tonight after the normal bedtime routine. He came over to the door and tried to open it for a minute or two. He was unable to defeat the childproof door knob cover. He requested an unnecessary diaper change (which I feel for during the 2am incident) and offered a couple "Daddy, can you help me's." He gave up pretty quick (about 3 minutes) and got back in bed. Wanted his water, couldn't find it, and cried a little for it, then covered himself up and went to sleep. YAY!

I didn't get back in there soon enough and he did fall out of bed around 9pm. He was crying a little bit, but was mostly still asleep. I put him back in the bed and covered him and he was sound asleep again before I could come back to give him some Motrin.
I'm off to bed myself now, and hopefully it will be quiet for the rest of the night!
Of course, we'll see...

Deer 1, Keats 0

The extra cold weather seems to be driving the local deer a little closer to the houses in our neighborhood. Yesterday morning I saw one while John and I were eating breakfast. I tried to show it to John, but I could never figure out how to describe where it was so that he could find it 20 yards away in a thicket that is mostly the same color as the deer!

Just now, while Keats was sunning on the deck, he saw two deer and barked furiously at them. They bounded about 20 yards away from the deck and turned and looked at Keats for about 30 seconds and figured out that he couldn't chase them. Then they leisurely made their way away...
I was glad to see that, since it means they will probably back again!
I'm sure it was a blow to Keats' doggy ego, though!