Good Question...

There are sleep issues in our house again. Nothing like when I first started the blog--the months-long pattern of nighttime waking every hour or two then was mind-alteringly horrible because of my inability to get any REM sleep for weeks on end. The toddler sleep disturbance we're facing now is also rough but in more of a Momma's-going-to-scream-if-she-doesn't-get-a-break way, not a Momma-needs-to-sleep-for-days way.

Jack's refusal to nap last Sunday was apparently only the beginning. Yesterday I struggled from 1:30 until 3:30 to get a very tired toddler to stay in bed, close his eyes, and be quiet. For at least half of that time, I heard a refrain of, "Jack trying to sleep, Momma!" every 5 seconds. Precious if you're reading it (especially imagining the sweet earnesty with which he said it); precarious if you're hearing it for the thousandth time. Yesterday afternoon was a patience endurance test and I only barely survived. After a two hour struggle of getting up and down and closing and opening doors, as a last resort I put Jack into the Ergo Baby sling. When he was very young, Jack used to take at least one nap a day in the sling while I walked around London or just around our flat, so I figured it was worth trying. Yesterday I walked around (which he liked) holding him tightly against my chest and refusing to let him wiggle around or get playful (which he decidedly did not like). Ten minutes later he was fast asleep.

This morning he woke up at 5:30. Bleary-eyed, I took him for a run in the jogging stroller so that Ben, who was up late working last night, could sleep in. Within the first three blocks it seemed like we had already seen half a dozen people walking their dogs. After contorting his head so that he could look up at me through the window of the stroller's canopy, Jack gave me a puzzled look and asked, "Where's Jack's dog?" Ahem. The little boy who has pined for a dog for at least a year has now developed the ability to ask for one. He spent the rest of the run deciding what kind of dog he wanted. For the record, he wants a "niddle one" like Aunt Rachel's dog. According to Jack it would live inside our house in the upstairs. Jack would "pat pat pat" it, throw a ball for it like he does with Miss Kelly's dog Peyton, and ask if it wanted food or wanted to go for a run. It seems he's thought about this before.

The following is a gratuitous photo montage of an afternoon playing with trains which is intended to make up for the lack of pictures in recent weeks/months (Do I ever seem to have any kind of picture post other than a completely unrelated montage lately? My camera is getting a lot less use than it was a year ago.). This was during a day that Jack insisted he did not need to wash his face. In case you hadn't noticed, there are independence-related conversations bubbling up at least every 30 minutes now.

Heard Around Our House

Jack now talks nonstop. Nonstop. Nonstop. And exactly that way--repeating everything several times in a row just to be sure we've heard him clearly. Yesterday was a disastrous example of what this new-found verbosity can mean. We foolishly tried to go to Latin Mass at a different church, and the stares from the almost exclusively over-70 and otherwise completely silent congregation seemed to go along the lines of, "Well in my day I would never have let a child behave that way!" And then naptime didn't happen at all because Jack had too much to say. No, he's not ready to give up naps--it's a one-time thing, and it was not a fun one.

But in every other situation Jack's talking is sooo much fun--now I can get comments and even a few questions in response to my communications! In fact, I've got so many make me laugh comments built up over the past few weeks that I plan on blogging them one at a time every day or two (maybe that will get me back into regular blogging?) until I run out. I'm sure more will build up in the meantime.

Other times, his train of thought is very obvious. As I told Pops that Jack had devoured a "C-O-O-K-I-E" the day before, Jack chimed in, "H I J K L M N O P?" in exactly the same intonation and rhythm.

The ones I find most funny are the comments Jack makes when he understands something I'm saying to someone else but doesn't understand what I'm communicating. Sometimes these responses take a little detective work to figure out. A few weeks ago I was talking to Nonna on the phone about one of my friends getting a doctorate, when Jack starting repeatedly saying, "Kabump, kabump." After a few minutes of questioning I realized that Jack was making his heartbeat sound effect, so I got out his toy medical kit and stethoscope. It was only then that I realized he had started saying that because he heard me say "doctorate." As I asked if that was what he had been thinking, the biggest grin came over his face. Whether it was pride in his ability to communicate or in silly Momma to understand him I don't know, but I'll take it either way.