Thursday, March 22, 2018

Colson 2 to 2.5

 
Two
to
Two and a half
 
(November 6 - May 5)


Colson is becoming quite the character. He can make some pretty funny faces and even cross his eyes! On the other side of things, he has some crazy tantrums! He will even scratch his own neck while trying to get his church shirt off because he doesn’t want to wear it.







At Colson’s Two Year doctor visit, these were his measurements:
Weight - 26 pounds (21%)
Height - 32.5 inches (8%)

Over the Christmas holiday at the Grubers, his sleeping routine went out the window. He required singing to sleep...literally until he fell asleep. I had to lay beside him until he was out. In the night he would wake up and demand to sleep with us. We would have to start over with the sleep training when we got home.

Once home, and from then on, he wanted the door open while going to sleep. One night I caught him coming out of the door since he could climb out of his crib. I told him to go back to bed. He couldn’t climb back into his crib so I just left him in there to see what he would do. After 25 minutes of silence, I went up to check on him to find that he had gone into Charlie’s room and climbed in his bed with him. He was petting Charlie’s face and whispering to him while Charlie was still fast asleep! He was putting stuffed animals and a boot on his head. He was whispering, trying to get him to wake up and go out and play. It was absolutely hilarious!

Colson regularly has crazy tantrums during the day and at night when trying to get him to nap or go to bed. He will think of any excuse: he’s hungry, scared of the dark, wants his door open, wants another story, more songs, milk, just wanting to talk. Anything! We can’t leave the door closed anymore (as mentioned above) because he just climbs out and pounds on the door. And then he can’t climb back into bed. One night he was crying bloody murder like someone was dying. I told him if he kept crying and climbed out of bed I would take one of his stuffed animals. Well, before too long I had to take it. I told him again, if he climbed out I would take his blanket. He did and so I had to take it. I shut the door. That really set him off. He pounded and screamed for five minutes before it stopped. I knew he had fallen asleep. So in about 15 minutes I went in there to transfer him to the crib. He woke up a tiny bit all frazzled, but fell back asleep quickly. When I got him in the morning, there was dried blood all down his cheek, on his forehead, tons on his pjs, some on the floor, door, chair, blanket, toy….so at some point during his last freak out he either scratched himself really good or hit his head on the corner of something. I didn’t see it when I transferred him because it was dark in there. I felt really bad.

Notice scab on forehead

Between January and February, Colson was not eating all that much at meals. He was tough to deal with. He would hardly stay seated and I couldn’t bribe him to eat. It was a big struggle. Of course when candy was around though, he had a huge appetite.






In February, he was still waking up between 6:00 and 7:00 am, but he was starting to wake up before 6:00 more and more. It was out of control. I was not used to that. Charlie always slept well, usually until 8:00 am. I knew I had to train him before leaving for Cambodia in March so he wouldn’t totally exhaust my parents. I started wondering if the cause was the TV time in the morning. I wondered if he woke up so early in excitement to watch TV, or if it was just generally harming it. For the following weeks, I got rid of the morning TV and tried to train him in the mornings better. I wish I could say that did the trick, but not a whole lot of progress was made even with that change in routine. He continued to wake up early. He continued to pound on the door if we ever shut it at night. We decided to take down one side of the crib so he could at least get back into bed if he climbed out. He was content with his bed like that as long as we kept the door open. He fell out of bed several times so we finally just took down the crib. We put the crib mattress on the floor, after padding it up a bit, and then put it in the corner of the room. This was another strategy to hopefully appease him into better night behavior before his long stay with Grandma and Grandpa Arbon during our trip. That seemed to do the trick. He did great going to bed as long as we kept that dang door open at night.




His room while still in the crib after redoing his wall decor


Crib side down

Moving away from sleeping problems, apparently it was a big issue for this stage...Here are some other things about Colson. Colson loves cutting paper with scissors (kid-friendly scissors). He is a legitimate nose picker! We have even caught him eating his boogers! I seriously have no idea where he got that! Maybe the gym daycare?




Colson loves being a helper for anything and everything...cooking, smoothies, laundry, weeding...pretty much anything you are doing, he wants to be a part of it. He doesn’t want to be left alone to play, he wants to be in on the action.










He loves to sword fight me with anything: play tools, sticks, hangers, etc.

Colson’s naps are one and a half hours, practically to the minute. It’s pretty amazing. He has a strong internal clock.


Colson loves pushing the little umbrella stroller around. When we go on walks, Charlie will ride his bike and Colson will push the umbrella stroller. He calls it his scooter. He is still a little small for the tricycle that we have; it is pretty heavy duty.


Back to the tantrums, he can now break the child-proof door locks off. We don’t close his door anymore for naps or bedtime, but we had been putting him in his room for time outs. Since he could now break the door open, my only alternative became stuffing him in his car seat, buckling him in, and leaving him there for the duration of his time out. At the time, that seemed the only solution.

Here are some more pictures from these last six months;


Thanksgiving:

Mya's Baptism

Orem Park



Watching our friend, Afton


They love to smother me with blankets and things



Christmas:








January:

Snapchat with Camry...a favorite activity







February:











March:



Staying with Grandma and Grandpa Arbon while we were in Cambodia:


















April:






































May: