Keep Thou My Feet

This was a week of learning to deal with the new normal. Now that Kevin can climb and get into more things, there are a lot more challenges. I've learned a lot this week. At the beginning of the week I read something about how important it is for parents to not let children control them. For example, I once heard a story of a little girl who would always cry when their family went out to eat, because she knew that if she acted like that she would usually get a treat in an effort to calm her down. So I started off the week with that in the back of my head and feeling like I couldn't let Kevin control me. Except after a couple of days I realized that I don't really have that problem. I don't generally let him get away with things just because he throws a tantrum. Then I realized that what I had been doing was trying to control Kevin, not prevent him from controlling me. So this week I learned that while it is true that I need to avoid letting Kevin control me, it is also true that I cannot control him because he has his agency. And if he's acting wild and getting into all sorts of things he shouldn't have, that does not mean that I'm not doing my job as a mom, because that's his choice and also part of his personality. So how many times do I have to learn this lesson before it sticks?

One evening this week when I was feeling very discouraged, I called my mom to vent. She made a lot of suggestions, but one thing that she suggested was to use music. I realized that the hardest time of the day is after Kevin's "nap" (more on that situation later), so I've started playing hymns or primary songs during that time when Kevin is awake but Ryan isn't home yet. It seems like I have felt much more peaceful and relaxed on the evenings when I have tried that, and Kevin seems to be a little calmer too.

Kevin continues to climb out of his crib when I put him down for a nap. He is actually climbing, not just diving out of the crib, so I think at this point we're going to stick with the crib a little longer--partly because he's familiar with it and likes it, and partly to prevent him from falling out of bed at night, because he's a pretty wild sleeper. He does usually stay in and go to sleep at night, so that's nice. For nap time, I've settled on at least having quiet time if he won't take a nap. I switched the lock around on his door, and if he doesn't go to sleep then he's free to climb out of his crib and play with toys, but he has to stay in his room for quiet time. I know it sounds mean to lock a child in his room (I felt quite guilty about it at first), but it actually seems to be working. Now he usually plays for a little while and then goes to sleep. Sometimes that's on the floor (and then we move him to his crib), but he's getting a pretty good nap, so I think it worked. One of the things I've learned about Kevin is that sometimes he needs to be left to do things himself, and sleep is one of those things that he needs to do himself.

After going crazy with Kevin going into the kitchen, Ryan thought of using one of our cabinet door locks to lock the gate. It doesn't work if we're going in and out of the kitchen, but if we're staying in or out of the kitchen for a while it works. Kevin also figured out this morning that he's strong enough to open the fridge. For the answering machine phone, we tried moving it out to the living room and putting it on the piano, but that idea didn't last long since we spent the rest of the day pulling Kevin off the piano. So we put the phone in a corner in Kevin's room and used his dresser and a bookshelf to conceal it, but he found it the next day. I found him during naptime sitting in the small space in that corner surrounded by cords. So Ryan turned the bookshelf around and put the phone and all the other apparatus on it, then pinned the bookshelf backwards against the wall with Kevin's dresser. We have a voip phone system that works through the internet, so we just need the phone and the voip box to stay plugged in so we can use the other phones in other places throughout the house. (We have two other places where we can connect to the internet, but we need one for our computer and the other one is behind the piano, which, as I mentioned before, didn't work out too well.) This solution seems to be working. He knows the phone is there, but he can't move the shelf. Sometimes I can't believe how smart this kid is.

This week we had occasion for both Kevin and Heidi to be weighed and measured. I was so frazzled from chasing Kevin around with a baby in tow that I can't remember the numbers, but they have doctor appointments this week, so I'll get a second chance. The person who did it said of Kevin, "His weight falls right on this curve in the 50th percentile, which is perfectly normal. On the other hand, his height is not normal at all. He's well over the 90th percentile. He's as tall as a three-year-old." So that's why people always seem to think he's three years old even though he just turned two.

This evening Kevin went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time. I could kind of tell he needed to go, so I suggested that he sit on the toilet. I think this helped him make the connection between sitting on the toilet and what's supposed to go in the toilet. So that was pretty exciting for him.

School started this week. I have one class every day and Heidi usually needs to eat while I'm gone, so I left a bottle at home with Ryan. I wasn't too worried because she had been doing a lot better with taking a bottle, but when I got home from class on the first day Ryan handed her to me and said she was starving but refused to eat from the bottle. By Thursday Ryan got her to drink from a bottle, but only after she had screamed for a long time and then was exhausted enough that she drank from it but kept gagging. So I guess we have to keep working on it. Fortunately, I'm only gone for a few hours each time, so it's not like she's going without food for a whole day. She'll learn.

Heidi slept for eleven hours one night this week. I appreciated the consolidated sleep, but when I woke up I was in a lot of pain because she hadn't nursed for so long. Generally it seems like she settles down for the night at about 10:00, and then wakes up at 4:00 to eat. Then Kevin wakes me up in the morning at about 7:00 by knocking on his door. Her naps during the day have become more consolidated. She continues to be a sweet and happy baby who only strongly objects to hunger, bottles, and diapers that are even slightly wet.

Classes went well. My teachers seem to be friendly and reasonable. I was nervous about Chem 102 since it's been a while since I took Chem. 101 and 105 at BYU, but it's all coming back for the most part, even the stoichiometry. Physics 116 looks like it will be fun. I signed up for a section where the lab is incorporated into the lecture, so there is a lot more hands-on learning instead of lecturing. On Friday we did a lab where we learned how to use vernier calipers (simply put, fancy rulers). It's hard to find time at home to do the readings and the homework, so that's stressful, and I'm still not sure how that will work out. But I'm at least happy that going to class will be a pleasant experience and that my teachers are approachable people. Yesterday one of the homework problems I worked on involved calculating how much of Archimedes' bathwater is in a can of soda (about 10^6 water molecules).

Yesterday I cut and froze some peaches. I also made about six cups of cherry pie filling, which was a first for me. It didn't taste anything like the store-bought stuff, but that's probably a good thing.

This week we experienced our first earthquake and our first hurricane. The earthquake was last Tuesday. Ryan was teaching a lab where lots of noise and vibrating was already happening, so he didn't even feel it, but we felt it at home. To me it just felt like some vibrating, and the potted plant on our computer desk shook and rattled. It took a while for me to even decide that it really was an earthquake. Later on there was an aftershock while Ryan was home, so he got to feel one too. Then Hurricane Irene hit the coast yesterday. We were far enough inland that we got rain and some heavy wind, but we've experienced worse storms here that weren't hurricane related.