Manipulation
Greetings to everyone.
The title of today's entry might read "Playing One Parent Against the Other". Young Xavier has likely done this before, but we haven't caught it.
Setting the stage: Mom is in Middle Earth, reading (Middle Earth is a central room in the house). Xavier is in Middle Earth doing whatever Xavier is doing. Dad is in the basement, stairwell door is shut. Xavier is unaware of Dad's location.
Dad hears extended crying coming through the floor. It sounds like a tantrum, so Dad is not moved to check on the boy, especially since Mom is in the same room. The tantrum stops for a moment, then crying starts again. Dad begins to wonder: "has the dog injured my son?" Dad listens for Mom's call, or yell or something.
Dad hears nothing of the kind.
Now listening intently, Dad hears the crying change to something more urgent and upsetting. The sound of little footsteps and the loud crying moved around the house, through the kitchen, the formal dining area, the long hall, the Master Bedroom. Never are the sounds of Mom's footprints heard.
"Better check this out," Dad thinks, and heads upstairs. Following the sounds of Xavier's complaining cries into the master bedroom, Dad finds Xavier standing at the door leading to Middle Earth (there are three ways of getting to this room). The door is closed.
"Oh, you poor thing, you," thinks Dad. "You've closed the door and can't get into Middle Earth and play with your toys, your dog or your mother."
Xavier runs to Daddy, throwing his arms over his head to be picked up. His crying quiets, first to a few sniffling sobs, then somber solace someone has rescued him from having to get into Middle Earth going the long way around.
But wait! Mom has yet to tell her side of the story. Before the crying began, Xavier was climbing on a table. That is not allowed, so Mom told him "Off the table" and gave him time to obey. When he did not, Mom repeated the command as she picked him from the table and set him to the floor. Mom and Xavier repeated this two times more.
Then, Xavier found a ball point pen and put it in his mouth while running around the room. Not safe, so Mom confiscated the ball point pen. The crying and tantrum began.
But wait! Xavier has yet to tell his side of the story. Mom would not let him crawl on the table. Mom took away his pen. Mom returned to reading her book, ignoring his tantrum, his rolling around on the floor, his sad, red little face and crocodile tears. "Someone needs to acknowledge my pain," he thinks.
Changing the tenor of his crying, Xavier picks himself up from the floor. Making a loop through the house, he goes looking for Dad. Surely Dad will hold me and comfort me and listen to my side of things.
Yep. That's exactly what happened. Dad came up from the basement and did all of that. When I heard Rebecca's side of what went on, I felt played.
21 Month Weight Check
Greetings to everyone.
Yesterday was a day of heavy snow, making this morning's streets during rush hour unpleasant for travel. Xavier's twenty-one month weight check was at 8:00 AM this morning, and Dr. Abbey's office is :30 minutes away without traffic and adverse road conditions.
Xavier is doing well. He is on his own growth chart, but tracking it smoothly. His curve is following the nominal curves, only he is in the one percentile. So, Dr. Abbey has no concerns about his weight gain. I was a little disappointed, hoping Xavier would be at or just over 18 pounds. Alas, he weighed in at 17 pounds 3.8 ounces. We really need to replace the scale in our house—it lies and builds false hope!
Length-wise, Xavier is a little accelerated. He measured 30 and 3/4 inches.
The Little Professor has been fighting a cold these last few days (his coughing two nights ago had his parents concerned; he spent the night on Dad's chest so he could maintain an optimal drainage angle and get some sleep). We were thinking infection like he has had recently. Today's exam found his lungs and ears clear, so no worries on this front; just a little cold.
The one problem Xavier has, which Rebecca and I have started taking concern for recently, is one he has had for a while. We hoped he would outgrow it, but it seems to have grown into a bigger issue instead: his tongue tie.
It may be a difficulty in his speech and it may be a problem in his eating and swallowing. Though his molars are still coming in (a lot of gums in the back of his mouth still), Xavier still pushes food back into his mouth with his finger. Due to the tongue tie? We do not know. Rebecca will ask Robin tomorrow, and Dr. Abbey has given us a referral to Children's to have a specialist look at it.
Xavier's tie is difficult, being highly vascular. This morning, Dr. Abbey cut part of it unintentionally with a tongue depressor as he examined Xavier's tongue. (Of course, Xavier squirming and fighting the exam added to the reason for the cut). Xavier bled quite nicely for a while. The bleeding was brought under control and a referral was written up.
To cut the tie means surgery. It means general anesthetic. It means putting Xavier under, and Rebecca and I are not sure about that. He is only 17 pounds! It's a sure bet that should a surgery be recommended, Dad and Mom will be grilling surgeons and anesthesiologists hard and heavy! We'll wait and hear what the specialist at Children's has to say.
Xavier the Explorer
Greetings to everyone.
Xavier loves going outside. We have been taking him to the park to play on the slides and other equipment, and he has enjoyed this. Recently, he has taken on a love for his own backyard. In the mornings when he gets up, he likes to go to a window and look out. With a big, smiley grin, he points at things outside and squawks excitedly. We name the items he points at, then he points at something else. This he could do, but for the lack of time his parents can fit in, for probably hours.
This weekend, the Denver area enjoyed a rare (and record-setting) bout of spring-like weather. Temperatures reached the low 70's and the sun had few clouds to contend with. It was time to let Xavier loose on the back yard (right after, that is, Dad cleared the yard of dog mines).
We have let Xavier out in the back to explore before, but he really took to it this weekend. I worked from home Friday. My office opens onto the patio and with the weather so nice, I left the door open to let Xavier (who now-a-days runs to the sliding glass door and presses his face against it like the stereotypical kid outside a candy store) come and go as he liked.
He explored everything at his pace, which was often fast. Every so often, I had to pop outside and check on him because, in his excitement, he forgot to keep checking in with me.
He eventually returned from his reconnaissance and started rolling out the heavy equipment. First, he found his newest car and headed out with it. Push-driving it to somewhere mid yard, he used it as a base to explore nearby places, like the window well he set his heart on getting into.
He brought out his ATV, perhaps to reach some of the higher, more difficult areas of the yard. Then he pulled his wagon into action. With the wagon, he demanded Dad come out and pull him around the whole property while he surveyed it from the comfort of his covered seating.
At one point, Xavier found the back gate and worked hard at finding a way to get it open. He even brought heavy equipment to bear on the problem: his "carpet mower".
Xavier began gathering other smaller toys and bringing them on his forays. By the afternoon, he had toys (mostly cars and wagons and trains) strewn across the yard. It was something of a sight. I looked upon all the vehicles on the lawn and experienced a strange sensation. I never expected to see my yard full of kid's toys, nor had I thought I would ever get to bring those toys onto the covered porch as night fell. Isn't that for younger couples to experience?