The "I'm Up Again at 3:30am" Post

Posts written at 3:30am should be at least somewhat entertaining, dontcha think? (For one thing, I'm in dire need of keeping myself awake. So I'll do my best. The obvious danger is that sometimes things written at 3:30am *SEEM* funny in the moment but are really just pathetic. So give me grace.)

Multiple choice test...

I am up because:

A. I alternately keep getting kicked in the kidneys or hit in the face with flailing limbs.
B. Someone with unchecked allergies is snoring loudly enough to wake the dead me.
C. Someone is sucking their thumb loud enough to wake "B" above.
D. All of the above.

In an effort to protect annoying bedmates (that would be PLURAL) the guilty, I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

But you'll be relieved to know that it doesn't really matter that I'm awakened at 3:30 am. Cause I've gone to bed in the 8ish range all week. Why do you ask?

Well, here are the choices. (Again, multiple choice, this time with a 50% of getting it right!)

A. Go to bed at 8pm with child and have child fall almost right to sleep.

B. Put child in bed alone at 8pm. Read with a flashlight in same room. Child gets up and down, up and down. Put child back to bed. Figure this isn't working. Step out of room to tell other family members good night. Return to room where said child is now seated in doorway, quietly sobbing. Put child back to bed. Put jammies on. Get in bed with child. Child continues to sob. Then child gradually ceases crying, only to start clapping. Then slamming his feet on the bed. Then slamming his feet in uncomfortably close range to your kidneys. Then talking. Then a range of all of the above that is getting a little hazy cause you've been up since around 3:30am the night before. Then you fall asleep, knowing that somewhere in close proximity, limbs are still slamming about your head. Then you wake up, realizing said child has finally just gone to sleep and that it's 9:45.

Hmmm. Which would you choose?

Yesterday was a little rough. He woke up crying, but didn't improve his mood much over breakfast as he often seems to. I did learn that he likes fried eggs and LilDude's rice bread. He ate very well. But as soon as the kids left he wanted to see photos of the foster family on the computer. This time he repeated "Ni Ni" (Granny = foster mom) and quietly cried.

I was thankful for a distraction in the form of Jennifer with Ethan (just his age!) who came to visit for the morning. We jogged the boys up and down the street. (Thanks, Ethan, for saying that I won!) Then hung out while they played. During this time I learned that GG adores corn flakes. Throughout the day I probably refilled a little Tupperware container for him about 10-12 times. Today he repeatedly rejected congee in favor of corn flakes. This wasn't my idea, believe me! At this point, however, I'm encouraging "grazing"; hopefully a full tummy will help to keep his spirits up.

GG did nap alone in bed for the first time. I sat in the doorway of my bedroom and read a book while he lay down on my bed and went to sleep. That was progress. I was stupid hopeful enough to think that the same pattern might extend to bedtime. Ha.

In the afternoon, we tried going out in public for the first time as I needed to pick Lizzi up at the school office for her piano lesson. When the secretary came up to him, he visibly cowered and buried his head in my chest, all while in the Ergo. Similar behavior happened at church when he saw the piano teacher. It's good we're staying home.

Over the course of the day he had multiple instances of getting mad at LilDude. It's been fairly easy to redirect him with "gentle" and redoing an instance of hitting with a gentle pat. This is in stark contrast to LilDude's ability to redirect at the same age, so I'm very hopeful.

At dinner we learned that he loves ham loaf, corn and cheesy potatoes. He also ate a little bread but refused the most amazing raspberry cream cheese dessert. It seems that anything berry is so new that even the idea of trying it repulses him. That's okay. The rest of the family didn't seem to have a problem with it. :) (Thanks, Judy! After we were done eating, there were several loud exclamations of adoration for dinner.)

In the evening he happily went outside with Daddy. They've invented a new game, sneaking around the house, peering in windows to see who they can find to spy on. I don't think we're creating a Peeping Tom. ;) When he finds one of us, he giggles and giggles.

Then both boys in the bathtub, which they've come to love as a nightly ritual. LilDude is the cleanest he's been in years!

Anyway, I think things continue to go as well as can be expected. Although I don't want to jinx myself by saying too much, this process seems to be relationally less complex than it was to bring home LilDude at 6 months. Now, granted, we had a 6 month honeymoon with LilDude in which everything looked perfect. So I don't want to speak too soon. But LilDude suffered from multiple transitions in that 6 months. GG, in contrast, has had 3 years of consistent, loving care. It shows. Day to day life is harder because I'm watching a child who has no sense of what's safe in this foreign environment...not to mention the fact that he can move at 100 miles an hour and doesn't listen when I say "that will land you in the hospital!" in English. But relationally, he really wants to seek us out.

Thank God. Even Especially at 3:30 am.

P.S. We had no potty accidents today. My solution? (Try to picture this.)

1. Lift child up in the air, tipping him head down, bottom and legs up.
2. Pull his pants UP to his ankles in one swoop.
3. In the next swoop, pop him straight onto the potty.

It's an UUUUPPPPPPPP, then PLOP motion.

Works so far. Apparently, one is less likely to pee when one's bottom is hanging upside down in mid-air.