I am becoming obsessed with wearing out the spud before his bedtime. The thing is; and I am almost afraid to type this in case I jinx it; the thing is that since the hysterics episode, the Spud has slept 11 hours at night every night but one. It’s almost like teeth 7 and 8 came with special magic sleepy potion. It is surprisingly easy to get used to this new, unbroken sleep that we’re getting however I do live in fear of the day that teeth 9 and 10 come along to wreck it all. In fact, to be honest, I live in fear that it wasn’t the teeth that were keeping him up at all and that this is just another one of those things that babies do randomly and temporarily, like waving their hands around and hitting the dinner spoon so that mush lands in Mummy’s eye, or loving rice cakes for months before turning around and hating them.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I am taking steps to ensure that these long nights are not just temporary and I have started a programme designed to wear him out before bedtime. For the last week, this has meant
forcing allowing him to do seven or eight circuits of the slide in the playground, the most important part being the bit where he crawls up the ramp to get to the top. I don’t know how much this has contributed to our long, dark, happy nights but I’m loathe to give it up Just In Case - and so, when it rained today and the slide was out of the question, we decided to take him to the frog’s studio and let him climb the stairs.
Given free reign he happily clambered up and then backwards down the stairs until he was actually panting. I think it must be the thrill of the dangerous and forbidden as he was like a little stairway yo-yo. I of course
knackered myself out got some exercise solicitously following two steps behind all the way up and then all the way back down again and then all the way up and then... but I digress. We’ve spent considerable time training him to climb down from things backwards and he’s finally sussed it. What he’s also sussed is that on carpeted stairs, he can pretty much slide feet first from the top to the bottom on his belly with his feet catching enough on each step to slow him down and his little chin raised carefully to stop it bobbling on every tread. Smart baby, was not sure whether to applaud him for being so clever or to have a heart-attack on the spot. It did however achieve my objective which was to tire
me my little french fried potato out before bed.
The problem of course is that he’s getting stronger, fitter and able to last MUCH longer on the slide and presumably, the stairs, meaning that soon my old aching bones will not be able to keep up with him. This in turn will mean that I need more sleep which will mean tiring him out for even longer so that HE sleeps more and then he’ll get fitter and… er…
...bother it...someone pass me the phenergen...
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13 comments:
ok beotch. It's 7:45am at your end. WTF? Why are you posting at this time. we have much to discuss. I am online. What, are you like disinfecting nappy bags? There is much to discuss. Get on skype.
Hor.
er... I were posting at midnight...
"french-fried potato!" You come up with the most adorable names! :D
It seems like it will never end, but it does!! Then there are other problems...
Hi Suki... erm... I'm worried that the spud thing is going to traumatise him in his future life... perhaps I should move away from potato-related imagery?!
Lady L! I love your comments, you always leave me a little more worried than I was when I checked in!
Thanks for popping in, both, nice to see people around on a Sunday.
hee hee, it's better coming from you than a stranger the first time! that way he gets used to it, see? And by the time he gets to school he'll be saying "I don't know why they call him the class bully, he calls me the same names that you do, mum!"
But then he will probably also do spud things like bashing the bully up in the most affectionate manner possible. :P
(Trust me, I've had my share of being called "dried chillies", "dried-up writing" and even the name of a demoness in the Ramayana in Bengali, as they are all quite close to the sound of my full name! You can't get used to it soon enough. :P)
Your friends baby might be able to say a couple of words but I'll bet the spud has better cardiovascular fittnes. Which leads to a better immune sysetem - which leads to him being sick less.
Let us not forget "survival of the fittest."
Take that brainy baby.
Suki - I was called all sorts of names as well. Currently he's only called the spud on this blog and sometimes, accidentally, by me to the frog. To his face I try to keep the insults to a minimum as I don't want it thrown back at me in 14 years!
Lindy - Good point! My spud can beat your spud!!!
lol oh dear. i keep saying to my friends 'having a baby is so easy, i feel like a lady of leisure'. HOWEVER betty is not yet mobile. she sits where i put her - easy. i am going to have a bit of shock when she works out crawling, which is imminent i think. run ragged.
Did you come steal my son? *checks if he is still around*
My son is quite physical too! But I assure you, once he starts talking, beware! :D
Elsie - yes, you are lucky indeed! The baby of a friend of mine who was born on the same day as Charlie only started crawling last week and she is in shock!
Bel - nope! Sounds like they are twins of some sort though!
Good to see you both!
Lol phenegren! the magic solution to any travelling with baby problems! Works wonders on 12 1/2 hour trans Atlantic flights and then again when you land, so that you can recover from the flight that you were wide awake for but your little darling slept through and therefore is now wide awake...not that I've ever succumbed to drugging my child you understand...I just read it somewhere...or heard it...or something....
LOL DJ! No, I would never think of it either. Never. Mm-m. Cough cough.
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