William’s Turn To Lock It

Posted by Lissa in 2yrs, trouble, Will on Jun 24th, 2012 | 0 comments

Yesterday we decided to take a little drive after dinner to look at Josh’s new office (it’s just downstairs, bigger space), and then to get some ice cream.  Josh got the kids in the car while I threw some laundry in, and then I ran down and hopped in the car.  All was well and the kids loved their “zebra” cones* …until we got home.  I hopped out of the car first and go to open the door from the garage to the house and the doorknob would not turn.  Ah the flashbacks of Alex when he was two…  I immediately said Oh William (honestly, we never even asked, we just assumed. lol)! 

I searched my purse…nope.  I didn’t drive, so they’re not there.  Josh?  Yeah he just recently gave his key to his brother since he never uses the house key.  Hmmm, we look at some extra keys, nope, none of those work either..  After a couple phone calls, the best option was meet Josh’s brother in Lansing (1/2 way between our 2 places).  Thank goodness he was there and able to meet us!

Certainly, not the best way to spend a Saturday night, however Alex made a comment that I got a kick of.  We were in Lansing and there was a bad smell from outside making our car smell bad.  Alex goes, “What’s that smell?” I answer, “Spartan-land.”  He replies, “Fartin’-land?”  Ha ha, yep, that’s right Alex!

 

*you know, the twists? black-ish and white, yeah they’re zebra cones now.

I Lock It!

Posted by Lissa in 2yrs, Alex, bed, trouble on Aug 24th, 2009 | 1 comment

I will actually upload some current pictures tonight to post soon, but for the time being…

Alex and mommy had an interesting Sunday afternoon. It started innocently enough as Josh went into the office for a few unknown number of hours and Will was sleeping in the swing. I folded laundry while Alex played and started putting it all away. First my room, then Will’s, then Alex’s room. I put away a few things as I heard Alex say “I lock it” and shut the door. “Ahhh” I say as I continue doing what I was doing, until I finally realized what he said.

Most of you are thinking, no big deal. Well, it looks like we didn’t post it when we did it, but in June Alex still was not sleeping well, waking throughout the night, screaming, coming to our bedroom and screaming, and then throwing a 3 hr tantrum in the middle of the night. We spoke with one of Josh’s friends ( a mother to twins and a singleton) and she told him to lock Alex in. While it’s kind of shocking, it’s really the same as letting a child cry it out in a crib, so we tried it… with success I might add. The bad thing about this whole ordeal is that to “lock Alex in his room” we had to change the lock so that it was on the outside of the door.

So yeah, Alex locked his door from the outside and shut us both in with Will downstairs and Josh at work and I had no idea when he’d come home.

My first thought was @#%! and yes, I said that out loud and Alex saw the look in my eyes and immediately started screaming and crying. I tried calming him down, opened his window and gave him the job of telling me if/when he saw anyone outside to yell to while I tried to find a solution.

The door doesn’t use a real key, just a skinny post with a flat end, so I tried to find anything that might work. Long, pokey, metal things are not really easily available in a toddlers room.

First I unscrewed the door spring/stopper thing and tried to unwind it a little. That didn’t work.

The only other metal thing in Alex’s room was the antenna on his radio, so I broke that off, but it was too thick to fit in the keyhole. Eek. I thought, well maybe I could use that to take the door off the hinges, but there was nothing strong enough in Alex’s room to pound it through.

I realized there was really no other way to get out. Will would wake up any minute and Josh could be gone for hours. I really was not looking forward to yelling to a neighbor and feeling like a tool. Well, the doors look a little cheap (it’s a fake wood), so I figured I’d start by trying to break the handle and see if I could unlock it then? So I yanked it as hard as I could and finally using both hands and almost breaking it off, the door flew open!! Whew! Alex was still bawling (this time because I told him to stay away from me and the door since I didn’t know what the end result would be). It took him a while to relax, but then we went downstairs and danced and he was better but kept saying “No lock the door.” That’s right kiddo. No locking the door.

The Mother Of All Tantrums

Posted by Lissa in 2yrs, Alex, home, summer, trouble, words on May 26th, 2009 | 0 comments

Today started out decent once I picked Alex up from daycare. We came home, I changed, he had some dinner, requested other food that I didn’t have and was okay with some alternatives (dinner was baking for a while, so I had to improvise for him).

After Alex finished dinner, he asked to go outside so Josh got him started and I went out for a quick walk with Alex – pushing him in his car. He told me which street he wanted to go down. Fine, we usually go down that street. We get to the end of the street and he wanted to cross the street (which leads to the playground). Since I had dinner still baking, I did not want to go there b/c that would take too long. So I turn the corner and he starts crying, but lets up. I turn the next corner heading back towards the house and he got sooo mad that he starts sobbing and jumped out of his car. Whatever, we were halfway gone/home, so I let him turn around – he was pushing his car at this point. He’s fine again until we get to the same corner leading to the playground. That’s when all you-know-what broke loose!

I would not let him cross the street, so he starts this huge tantrum. I point the car back towards home, and he tries multiple times to turn it towards the playground and I wouldn’t let him. I tried saying bye-bye and walking towards home and he ran the other way with the car! We sat at that corner for probably 5 min’s while he screamed his head off. I tried sitting him down, talking to him at his level, etc. Nothing worked! Finally after some staring by the neighbors at that end of the street, I picked him up and started carrying him back home while pushing the car with the other hand. He’s screaming even harder at this point yelling “NO!” “MY CAR!” over…and over…and over. He wiggles out of my arms, so I try to let him push again. Nope, he tries to turn it around again. He would NOT give up.

So, I, at almost 31 wks pregnant had to carry Alex kicking and screaming under my arm (like a football since he wouldn’t sit on my hip) while pushing or carrying his car for an entire block. He never shut up the whole way. When we got home Josh was sure he had broken a bone since he was screaming so hard (he heard us coming down the street).

Once we got home Josh took him upstairs. He continued to throw a fit: Coat on!, Socks on!, etc. etc.. It probably took another good 10 min’s for Alex to stop screaming and throwing a tantrum. When Josh got him calm and came back downstairs (to get ready to go straight back up to bed) Alex’s eyes and lips were so swollen from crying.

All we could say was wow! and laugh. I have a decent sense of humor over the typical tantrums, so hopefully the neighbors were laughing with me and not getting mad that my kid was being soo obnoxious!

**And on a cuter note: Alex now asks “Auh doing?” (What are you doing?) It’s so cute and funny! Auh doing mommy? So cute.

Tales From The Monitor…

Posted by Lissa in 22 mos, Alex, bed, Funny, trouble, words on Mar 9th, 2009 | 0 comments

Things I’ve heard over the monitor (and the rest of the story told by Josh)..

Saturday morning when Alex slept in:
We made breakfast and Josh went to wake Alex up.
Monitor: Nnnnn No!
Josh was back downstairs right away. Apparently when Josh gently rubbed his back and told him it’s time to wake up, Alex yelled No!, rolled over, pulled his blanket up, started sucking on his finger and slept another half hour at least!

At 5am this morning when Alex woke up during the night:
Monitor: No! No!
Yeah, Josh told him it was still night-night time and told him to lay down. Alex said No! (do we see a pattern here?) Finally Josh layed him down and thank goodness he stayed down.

This evening when Alex wasn’t falling asleep:
Monitor: Mama night-night. Dada night-night.
After we’d put him back to bed a few times, Josh went up again.
Alex said Mama night-night,
Josh: Yes, Mama night-night,
Alex: Dadda night-night,
Josh: Yes, daddy’s going night-night too.
Alex: “Eye-yix” night-night.
Josh: Yes, Alex needs to go night-night too.
Alex: “Eye-yix” night-night too.

He’s too cute sometimes. We are definitley going through the No phase. It’s a mean No too. Anytime we tell or ask him to do something, it’s No!

Good News and Not-So-Good News

Posted by Lissa in 17 mos, checkup, trouble, video on Sep 24th, 2008 | 0 comments

Alex has still been sleeping poorly, but that’s not news at all. We took him to the dr. today just to make sure there’s nothing going on and then to discuss how to get him out of this funk. While we were there, he got weighed and he is finally over 20 pounds!! I am so happy about that. For some reason, the 20 lb mark seems like a milestone to me, so yay!! He was 20 pounds and 2.5 ounces Meanwhile, the dr. said he’s completely fine and is just having attachment issues and wanting our comfort. Now we just have to decide exactly how we’ll tackle that. Now for the not-so-good news: Alex is going to be getting into trouble!!