The Oatmeal Chronicles

Usually he uses a spoon, although on occasion he’ll start spelunking the depths of oatmeal with fingers, in search of the lost raisin.

Zane learned timeouts a few weeks ago when he first started screaming and hitting. These days he’ll even put himself into a timeout sometimes. The photo below is before breakfast when he was being ornery and his Grandma suggested maybe he should go in his room for a bit. He walked down to the room, sat on the cushion, and just chilled for a while. I was watching from the office and couldn’t figure out why he was sitting there for so long. Apparently he worked out whatever was troubling him and proceeded down the hall to have a good breakfast and a pleasant morning.

Last night we had just the opposite. He was late taking his nap and it really looked like it wasn’t going to happen since it was after four. On the webcam I could see him hanging by his arms from the three foot tall changing table; feet a little over a foot above the ground and his butt just kind of wavering in space. He did this for a couple of minutes and then boom! he was on the ground. It looked like he just let go to see what would happen. Well, it took a few beats before he started crying. I went down to comfort him and then got him to fall asleep.

An hour later he was up and running around again. We had a nice meal of German sausage, potatoes, and salad which he ate heartily (well, no salad, he said it was “gross”). Dessert of mandarin oranges (he can eat a whole can) and then he and I did some re-organizing. First we changed the layout of his room a bit in the hopes of having a little less crazy climbing (but this could backfire unexpectedly) and then downstairs to move some bookshelves and the dog crate around a bit. Played for a while, watched part of a movie, then upstairs for a snack (sorbet!) and down the hall to get pajamas on. Off came the clothes all the while I was babbling about the merits of using a potty instead of a diaper and, speaking of which, let’s put on your diaper. “No Diaper!” he yelled and tried to roll away, kicking his legs at me. So we wrestled a bit, trying to get the diaper on and then his pajamas, he getting more and more obstinate. I asked if he wanted a spanking (silly question since he doesn’t know what one is) and he nodded a solemn yes. Realizing that wasn’t working I changed tact and said the longer he struggled the fewer books we’d read for bedtime. That pretty much stopped him in his tracks.

We read a handful of books, turned off the lights and snuggled a bit (“no snuggle”, “no kiss” as he snuggles in for a kiss) and then I left the room and he fell right to sleep. I was exhausted. Maybe he should be putting me to bed instead? Seriously, who looks ready for bed in this picture?