Jack rarely plays by himself at home –normally insisting on the constant attention of at least one adult. This has made life somewhat more difficult for us.

Recently Al made a change to Jack’s bedtime routine. Between reading a book and me tucking him into bed, Jack can now play by himself in his room. When ready for bed he calls me (or I turn up at 7:30pm after giving him a 5 minute warning). It is early days, but Jack has been happy with this arrangement. He plays for 5 to 20 minutes by himself before calling me, and tends to go down easier and with less noise.

Al started taking iron supplements about half way through the pregnancy, and continued taking them after Grace was born. When Grace was a couple months old there was a period of over a week were Al had run out of tablets. During this time we had noted Grace’s general demeanor and happiness had improved. When Al started taking the tablets again, Grace returned to being grumpier and harder work.

We wondered if there was a link – so Al stopped taking the iron tablets again and happier Grace returned. While there was obviously nothing scientific about this single observation, we were concerned enough that Al hasn’t had the supplement since. Grace has remained a much easier baby to deal with.

Jack’s group at Ready Steady Go this term is an amalgamation of two classes. One of the new kids is a prissy little brat, who has been the first I’ve seen sent away to sit with his mum for being too disruptive.

Today this child noticed one of the other boys had brought his teddy bear with him, and left it propped up against a water bottle. The boy picked up the teddy bear, and after deliberately taunting his mum who was asking him to put it down from the sidelines, carried it over to the owner. The bear’s owner quickly got upset when the boy refused to give it back. The instructors soon put a stop to it, but during this time the boy had a look of smarmy pleasure on his face at causing distress to the other child.

It showed a real character flaw – and if I ever see Jack do something like that, with such a look on his face, I would put him over my knee and give him the first ever smack of his life.

The nasty child’s mum was mortified, the child was pleased with himself, and the bear’s owner got a lesson about not leaving things important to him lying around.

The room leader at Jack’s childcare told me that children at this age do not know how to be malicious. I’m surprised someone who spends so much time around children could be so clueless. I’ve known children at the age of 6 months who were already showing signs of having cruel natures, which have continued through to being well practiced long before they reached the age of 4.

Jack stopped wearing pull ups to bed a week ago, and so far hasn't had an accident overnight.

He has had a couple accidents during the day over the last few months - mainly it seems when really focused on play and not wanting to stop.

We made another change to Jack's night time routine. It now goes shower, play time with mum and story reading, say good night to Mum and Grace, play on the computer with Dad, play by himself in his room until ready for sleep or it hits 7:30, and be tucked into bed by Dad.

It is working well so far - it makes the night time routine shorter and less stressful for Al, and we don't spend as much time waiting for each other to finish our parts of the routine.

Getting Jack to play by himself at night (with the encouragement / reward that he isn't put into bed quite so soon) is working well. We have even noticed he is more prone to playing by himself for short periods during the day now.

Grace is too big for the baby bath, so has started showering with mum. She is not entirely sure about that, but her patience for it is increasing.

We all had a particularly good Saturday - everyone seemed to be happy and relaxed, and there were no tantrums or angst from anyone. Sunday was not quite so good, and Jack has woken up on edge this morning, but Saturday... that was probably one of our best days as a family of four.

There is one noteworth negative of our new night time routine. Jack is putting himself to bed much earlier than we would like, and as a result he is waking up much earlier in the morning. He has been turning up at 5am lately, wide wake, and insisting on our attention. This is impacting on how rested Mum and Dad feel when starting each day...

The prissy brat I talked about last week at Ready Steady Go turned up this week with his father. His Dad spent most of the session yelling loud encouragement to the boy to “throw further than everyone else”, “run faster, get in front of everyone”, “hurry up, you are falling behind”. The boy still deliberately pushed and antagonised the other participants, but the father didn’t seem to be as vocal in discouraging that.

Last week I remarked on the nature of kids to be cruel. Maybe this kid wasn’t such a good example to have used, since nurture might have played a bigger part than nature in making him the way he is.

Still – at one point when he deliberately kicked Jack, I had silently wished that instead of just looking sad, Jack had uncharacteristically turned around and pushed the other kid over.

Tonight we tried to delay Jack’s bed time routine so that he wouldn’t go to sleep so early.

We started by insisting he spend some time playing with his Mum upstairs after the shower – but he refused, being adament that he wanted to go straight to playing on the computer.

We said it was too early for that – and that he had to watch some TV. He agreed to watch a Bob DVD – but immediately after the first episode turned off the TV and said he was finished.

I figured I would let him have an extra long play on the computer – but shortly into the game, while sitting on my lap, Jack farted. That broke an important rule – so immediately ended the computer time.

Jack, upset about the computer, then refused to spend any time playing in his room by himself.

So before we knew what was happening, we were at the point of putting Jack to bed too early again.

Thankfully at this point Jack threw quite a long tantrum, so by the time we got over that he did go to bed a little later than he has recently. We will have to redouble our efforts tomorrow night.

Meanwhile Al is somewhat of a walking zombie. Jack’s early arrivals and Grace feeding more often over night is running her ragged.

We have had lots of clashes with Jack today. He has been deliberately pushing buttons and his behaviour has been very trying. Distraction techniques haven’t been working due to tiredness on our behalf, and a blinkered fixation on whatever is causing the conflict by Jack. As a result we are just going from one tantrum to another; with our voices are getting louder, and our patience getting shorter.

We are ending up being quite short with him. As he ramps up (yet again) we are resorting to talking over him, telling him to stop, be quiet, and to stop whinging. Sadly that is about the most effective thing we have been able to do– since if we give him half a chance he just ramps himself up into yet another tantrum.

I don’t know if he has a headache or isn’t feeling well, is just over tired, or is stressed after his busy week. As I said in exasperation to Al earlier, it is like he simply can’t or won’t be happy.

Grace on the other hand seems to find the loud voices and Jack’s tantrums most amusing, and has been chuckling away about it numerous times today.

Jack has thankfully been much better behaved over the last few days.

Grace’s lack of interest in eating solids turned out to be a lack of interest in eating Rice Cereal and mashed Vegetables. When introduced to Pear and Apricot she ate the whole jar and demanded more. Apple has also been a hit. For these new favours she attacks the spoon much like a hyperactive cat laps up milk. A consequence of this – aside the impact on nappy changes, is that she seems to have been sleeping better at night.

Grace has recently been practicing her chuckling, and will chortle away happily at just about anything the slightest bit amusing.

There is a young girl called Mia at one of Jack’s activities who seems quite smitten by him. She excitedly remarks on when he turns up, looks at him adoringly, makes a point of sitting or standing next to him during the exercises, pats him on the arm, shoulder or head when the opportunity arises, and makes a point of saying good bye to him at the end. Jack goes out of his way to ignore her. He’ll have to work on his technique if he wants to have any luck with the opposite sex.