A Roaring Dragon - on Huffy the Scooter Bike

Posted by Doug at 9:13 PM

"We do not teach our children how to be bored..."

It was a quote I read in an article a while back.

We keep Jack constantly busy. Even during his quiet times he doesn't have to make much of an effort to find entertainment. We offer him lots of choices - what he wants to do, play, watch, eat, where he wants to go. One thing we haven't taught him is how to be bored. I think it is a level of self sufficiency we need to work on with Jack - but I am not sure how.

Jack has been unwell the last couple days – a head cold or the like, with the run’s thrown in today. He has been very up and down. Overly energetic, polite and cheerful one minute, distraught over some minor thing the next.

Al and I have both noticed how extreme Jack’s behaviour can get whenever things are out of balance. If he is over tired, if he needs food, if he isn’t feeling well. He will even tell us during these times that he is unhappy, but he doesn’t know why. Food is particularly important. I cannot tell you how often we have had a feral unexplained hour or two with Jack, eaten lunch or tea, and then had a perfectly normal and happy child afterwards.

He eats well and regularly – but we might have to start regimenting the timing of snacks and meals - like they do at childcare, to help keep him more balanced.

Posted by Doug at 9:54 PM

Jack was absolutely feral last week, meltdown after meltdown, tantrum chaining tantrum, and deliberately being naughty. It was a personality change – for the worse.

Jack had been eating something new for breakfast as a treat. So we stopped that and the next day normal Jack was back.

We have noticed it before, but this highlighted it for us again. Jack’s balance really seems to be thrown out by one or more food color additives. While doing some research tonight I found reference to one of the ingredients in his breakfast being known for causing hyperactivity and allergic reactions in children, and was in fact banned in some European countries.

So while not wanting to jump on a bandwagon or draw conclusions - Al and I have decided to start off by trying to limit food color E110 (Sunset Yellow) in Jack’s diet. Each time Jack apparently has one of these overly hyper reactions, we will also look at the ingredients of whatever he has recently eaten. You never know.

(Note to self, other colors were 100, 129 and 133.)

On a more positive note – Jack seems to have had a sudden burst in confidence which we have noticed in a number of different ways. He would never say goodbye to people – but now is doing so. He would love to listen to his Grandma C on the phone but wouldn’t always respond - now he is starting to have proper conversations. He would often hold our hand in public as a security blanket (something we encouraged since it was much easier than carrying him), but he has suddenly stopped and prefers walking independently. He also took his first swimming class without his mum joining him in the water – and handled it well.

Posted by Doug at 9:37 PM

There have been a number of cases recently in the media about babies and toddlers dying through neglect or abuse. I look at Jack – and know how aware he is of what is going on around him, and shudder to think of what those poor children went through. I can understand why people might not be able to cope – but to take that out on a child instead of seeking help is unforgivable.

Given Jack’s cough we had organized Grandma Q to visit on Monday. It was lucky we had, since Jack spent half of Sunday night awake with a high fever. Thankfully the fever broke and he had a good day at home – so he was packed off to Childcare today.

We had to alternate between giving Jack cough, fever and cold medicines over the last few days. He has historically only taken the cold medicine, and refuses the other two. For the first time we were able to reason with him to take the “yucky” tasting medicine. On Sunday night he took it without complaint – obviously feeling bad. On Monday morning I indicated if he didn’t need the medicine that he must have been well enough to go to childcare – so he had the medicine. On Monday night I bribed him with half a candy stick. That has been another step forward with Jack.

(I am not sure if I have admitted it here or not, but I could not swallow tablets at the age of 18. I’d always gagged – so had to revert to crushing them into honey. After a horrendous day at University where I couldn’t get tablets down for a very nasty headache, I took the advice of another student. I purchased a packet of M&M’s, and practiced taking them like tablets with water. After a dozen M&M’s the problem was fixed.)

Posted by Doug at 3:29 PM

This is quite an overdue post for me. Jack has been sick for the past couple of weeks with a bad cough – and as usual when he is sick he has been out of sorts and wanting mum to be very close by. Doug was also sick last week, and I came down with the same thing on the weekend. The joys of winter and having a young child in childcare, picking up lots of bugs. As a result the last few weekends have been spent quietly at home.

Prior to that Jack had fun visiting Kiara's new house with Liana. He has been asking more regularly about his friends and where they are, and wanting more interaction with other kids. He also had a fantastic first visit to Braden's house. The two boys giggled and jumped up and down excitedly together at the start of the visit, then played happily for the most part. He also had a great park and dinner/play centre visit with Damon, Dominic and Bella. He was the most independent he has ever been on such visits. At the end Damon came up to me and said that he wished Jack was his brother - which was very special. The two of them have a lovely bond, and it amazes me that Damon (being a few years older than Jack) has so much interest and patience with him.

On the family front, Auntie Lis has moved home after years of working overseas, so Jack has enjoyed some time with her. She came to stay for a busy day of ready, steady, go, playing at a park, and a special night story time at his Duck Room childcare centre. The childcare workers acted out the story of the '3 little pigs' and Jack is still talking about it weeks later. He had lots of fun attending cousin Tara's 4th birthday and going 'exploring' in the nearby woods and creek. He was excited to get dressed up in Dad's home-made bear costume for Gymbaroo. Grandma Q has also minded him a few times while I have been on training courses (my first work training courses in about 5 years), and enjoyed Grandma and Dad taking him to some of his activities in my absence.

Summary of Jack at 35 months:

. A major event for the month is Jack moving to swimming 'all by himself'. Even a month ago I wouldn't have believed he would be ready for such a step, but he has had a real burst forward in confidence this term. His teacher Kellie suggested starting him a few weeks before the end of term so that hopefully he is settled in by start of next term. Much to my surprise he got really excited about his first lesson, and did a great job. He did keep a close eye on mum at the side of the pool and spoke to me regularly. He realised what was involved for his second week, so was much more worried and apprehensive, but still got through it ok. I am really proud of how he has handled the transition (although early days yet of course).

. A huge milestone in past month has been several weeks of mostly sleeping in his cot-bed through to morning. Since he has been sick he has been waking again more at night, but has still slept through the odd night here and there. It remains to be seen once he is fully well if he continues to sleep through (fingers crossed). This milestone has certainly been a long time coming.

. Jack has had renewed interest in drawing and colouring this month. He makes a real effort to colour in pictures fully. He also tells us more about what he is drawing (such as train tracks, kites, smiley faces, mum, dad and Jack). He also has his first pair of kid’s scissors and enjoys chopping up paper, and has also requested to start doing some 'pasting' at home. All good activities to keep him entertained during the cold winter months!

. We have really noticed how up and down Jack's behaviour is in relation to food. He can often be extra cranky before a meal, then happy and calm for the next few hours afterwards, then 'crash' again with his behaviour before the next meal. Because of this we have been trying to be more consistent with meal times and giving him regular snacks in between, and it has made a difference. As per Doug's post, we also made the connection with his behaviour and a food colouring, and taking it out of his diet immediately calmed him down. This is something we will need to continue to try to identify and watch.

. Jack's imaginary play continues to develop. This month he has enjoyed doing 'pretend cooking' of play-dough cakes and pretend shopping. He also asks to do things, and if we say he can't do it for real, he will say 'just pretend'.

. Childcare has reported he has spent partial and full days playing with his friend Braden. He is really starting to enjoy social interactions with other kids, and playing with them directly, rather than just parallel play.

. In his Ready, Steady, Go and Gymbaroo he is participating by himself more and more. His ball skills continue to shine and a instructor has remarked on his good hand eye co-ordination.

. The weekly visits to the play centre after 'ready, steady, go' have really helped him gain confidence on all the play equipment. Now at times he climbs up the structures and goes down the slides all by himself - without always insisting I do it with him.

Posted by Al at 9:24 PM

Back before Jack was born we purchased several camera lenses - carefully researched to hopefully cover our photography requirements for years to come. One of those lenses has not had a lot of use - being targetted more at capturing images of Jack playing sport. I was glad to find recently that the choice was a good one.

Jack has been banned from kicking balls inside - for obvious reasons...

Posted by Doug at 8:49 AM

After a period of disinterest, Jack has started to spend time drawing and colouring things in again. He seemed to have stepped up a level - and we were impressed to see how well he would colour all objects in on a page - in the one colour. Then he went onto using different colours for each object. Recently he has enjoyed connect the dot images - and tonight he drew one of the first really recognisable images. Just another one of those cool little things you get to enjoy watching your child develop.

 

Jack's drawing - straight to the fridge.

Posted by Doug at 9:23 PM