Little Climber and Refrigerator Garbage…

Jay – 3 and a half
Jonah – 1 year old

Hello, friends. I chose to start a blog to help preserve my stories and feelings as I raise my two active, intelligent, interesting, funny, and precious boys, James “Jay” Bryson (age 3 and a half) and Jonah Matthew (age 1)  Moon.

Jonah is a very active, toddling one year old. As a 9-month old he took his first strides across the room, so at 13 months, climbing is his newest adventure — and sometimes my nightmare. He is like a little spider-baby. It amazes me how quickly and with such persistence he manages to find any leverage available to hoist his 23 pound, 30-inch self on top of the couch, the train table, or even a rocking chair. Most recently, I stepped out of the living room and came back to find him standing on the end table, playing with the lamp. Yes, things are interesting around here. No matter how “baby proof” I try to make things, it seems little Jonah is out-smarting my finest efforts. What a sweetheart he is, though. Last week I took Jonah to the diagnostic center to have his blood drawn (routine prior to his 1-year well baby appointment). I really dreaded this and put it off as long as possible. You see, when I took Jay for the same routine bloodwork, we experienced 3 pokes and no success. He was hysterical. I was a nervous wreck. I refused to try again with him. Not expecting a good experience, I called for back-up and took Nana with me for Jonah’s appointment. Much to my surprise, Jonah sat perfectly still and watched as the nurse inserted the needle, drew his blood, and applied the bandage. No whimper; no crying; no flench. (Here’s a shout out to Pikeville Medical Center’s Diagnostic Center staff for being especially good with babies.) The story was similar at his 1-year old well baby appointment this week when he didn’t even whimper at his two vaccinations. He’s a tough little man who loves to smile, loves to make us laugh, and really loves to dance.

Speaking of dancing, three-year-old Jay has a few dance moves of his own. Matt and I like to set Pandora Radio, or even our Direct TV to a Disco station and watch our boys dance to the music (okay, we usually dance along, too). Jay’s signature move is when he “shakes a tail-feather” (a move where he puts his little hand behind his back and shakes it up and down). He likes to show our family and friends this signature move in hopes of making everyone in the room laugh. He usually succeeds. He’s a real charmer, a clown, and my, oh my a talker!  He started talking pretty early and has never slowed down. Though his speech and vocabulary are quite developed at 3 and a half, he has not developed any type of volume control in his voice. He has one dynamic level — forte. This makes things super-interesting when Jay is awake and Jonah is trying to nap. Let’s just say we’ve had several “teachable” moments in which we try to model and teach vocal volume control (some of you didn’t realize that whispering is a difficult skill to master). We’re still working on it.

As parents of toddlers, one of the most important parts of being able to have a comfortable home is having a very safe, properly baby-proofed atmosphere. Matt and I have been pretty successful in feeling “safe” and “comfortable” at home because we have maintained a pretty toddler-safe atmosphere. That’s not to say that we haven’t done our fair share of scrambling. When Jay first learned to open doors with a door knob, things started to get interesting. My biggest concerns at this were him getting into the bathroom without our knowing, and getting into the kitchen garbage (which is located behind a closed pantry door). Of course, these were the two areas of most interest to him. After a few weeks of jumping at the sound of an opening door, we toddler-proofed the necessary door knobs so Jay couldn’t open them. This trick has worked like a charm for over a year and Jay even knows to come and ask us to open the bathroom door when he needs to go, or to open the pantry door when he needs to throw away a piece of garbage. He’s a very independent little boy, but has never seemed to mind asking for help with these doors until this week. I suppose in his world asking for help to throw something away  became a burden, so all of a sudden he stopped. I started noticing empty capri suns, napkins, and food wrappers in the bottom of  my refrigerator. I reminded him that he just needed to ask and Mommy or Daddy would open the pantry to let him throw his garbage away. It didn’t matter. He had already come up with his own solution and if I’ve learned anything at all about parenting, it’s that no matter what I want him to do or try to teach him to do — he does have his own little mind — and a very independent one at that. So … the baby proofing came off the pantry door. My 3-year-old now has the personal freedom to throw away his garbage on his own without asking an adult. I guess they  grow out of the baby-proofing gradually. We’ve had several days here of “garbage independence” and Jay has handled it like a big boy. No garbage messes around the house; no garbage cans turned over in the floor. But I wonder…what will we do when Jonah …well, maybe Jonah won’t be interested in the garbage can. 🙂

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