stuff best described as not safe for parents

Sleep training update: Momma wins this round

December 16, 2009

Did I already mention that my life has been in a state of affliction ever since Tru started sleeping on his new bed? He’s been getting up several times every night crying and one of us has to go in and sit beside him till he falls asleep, which can take up to a whole hour. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. IN THE DARK. Sometimes, I would fall off my chair and cause a ruckus, which was actually counterproductive. That’s not to mention the 30 minutes I spend trying to get him to sleep in the first place.

I’ve got to make sure he’s truly asleep before I tiptoe out because I tried sneaking out too soon and ended up being busted by the sleep-deprivation mafia. It was like a flashback to my sneaking back home past curfew days as a teenager. Thanks to all that training, I can enter and exit rooms without so much as a squeak. But my son, he can detect your presence by the oxygen balance in the room. Either that or he’s psychic.

I also tried shifting my chair nearer and nearer to the door but he doesn’t care where I am as long as I’m inside the room. When I shifted my chair outside the door (leaving a small crack so he can still see me), he goes ballistic and climbs off to come stand beside me.

In the past week, I must have carried him back to his bed at least 1000 times. I lost count after a thousand. But the good thing is that now I have arms of steel. Silver lining.

As the week wore on, it was becoming apparent that our methods were not working so we decided to show hand, as it were. We put him in his bed, kissed him goodnight and left the room. The first night, it was like we unleashed a very angry bobcat in the room. Every 10 minutes, we would go in to calm him down and tuck him in again. 40 minutes in, he finally stopped and fell asleep on his bed. That’s when we did our victory lap. If he had ended up slumped over the floor, we would have been so guilty that we’d spend the next year sitting beside his bed every night. I would end up snappish and foul-tempered and eventually become the crazy woman with a hundred cats.

Instead, we now sleep through the night again because ever since then, he hasn’t woken up once. Also, the shrieking has gotten shorter and shorter. Last night, it took him 3 minutes before he fell asleep. And it was more of a whine rather than a shriek so that’s a good sign.

Update: I put him down tonight and NO CRYING. He didn’t even attempt to get off his bed. He just looked at me with resignation, flipped over and slept. That, my friends, is an out of the park and into the stratosphere kind of home run. VICTORY.

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out of the box

Girls and great grandmothers

December 15, 2009
That's a difference of 87 years

Priceless

I don’t remember much about my great grandmother, except that she had a really large house and large dogs, but not much else. So I’m really glad the kids have a chance to know their great grandmother because not many people get to even have great grandparents, much less a cool one who’s crazy about them.

I almost don’t mind that she spoils them rotten because it comes with the territory. You don’t get to be a great grandmother unless you spoil the great grandkids. When the kids get bigger, they’ll figure out that if they can’t get something from daddy and mommy, chances are they’ll get it from grandma. In the rare chance that it doesn’t work, the great grandma card is a sure win.

Looking at baby girl, I think she’s got that figured out already.

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Truett goes to school

School shopping, less fun than you think

December 14, 2009

Tru’s going to be starting school in January and he’s really excited. It’s more like a 3-hour playgroup every morning where he gets to dole out free hugs to more kids and do fun stuff like building sandcastles and water fights play. It hardly constitutes as school but he’ll be wearing a real uniform and carrying a lunchbox like a big boy.

In an education-obsessed society that we’re in, school shopping is possibly one of the most harrowing experiences parents have to go through. The top schools have a waiting list up to 2 years in advance so that means the really hardcore parents have to register as soon as the child is born. That’s just insane. With all the responsibilities of a new baby, picking a school did not seem like a priority.

Plus, I did my primary school education in Ping Yi Primary, where the boy next to me crapped in his pants and spat on us every other week right up till he was 12. It’s one of the merits of public education. It’s so awesome that the school no longer exists today because I’m pretty sure the non-existence of crap on the floor is kind of like a prerequisite for enrollment.

Principal: At our school, we treat every student like he has the potential to be the next Prime Minister or world class surgeon. We have a dedicated staff of teachers…

Parent: Is it me or does it smell funky in here? OMG is that a piece of crap on the floor?

And another one bites the dust.

But then again, I still turned out ok.

In any case, we weren’t planning to enroll him till he was 3 or 4 so it’s not like we were really looking. But it was like a stroke of genius one afternoon. We always knew that Tru was too advanced for his age and he always seemed thrilled to be around other kids. Being cooped up at home cramped his style and he was a natural at socializing and falling into formation. It was like he actually enjoyed being ordered around and following what other kids were doing. It doesn’t work when I order him around, but when other kids are following instructions, he thinks it’s a game and does the same.

Of course, it’s great for me too, because it’ll give me 3 hours of uninterrupted time alone with baby girl.

So began the search for the perfect playschool. It was harder than we thought. My checklist was extensive, to say the least. The teachers had to be good with kids, well-spoken (none of that li-ber-ry, ter-ri-ber nonsense), fun and firm without being militant. The environment had to be bright and happy. The curriculum had to be well-planned. The location had to be convenient. The kids not too brattish. And so on.

We finally found the school we were looking for and Tru took to it immediately. During the visit, he was beaming the whole time. We spoke to the teachers and we knew it was everything we were looking for. Then they told us that it was full and they wouldn’t be able to take him in next year. After 2 months of waiting, we finally got news that Tru got a place and we celebrated like he was accepted into Harvard.

Next step, actually getting him into Harvard.

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