Parenthood: Week 398 – 2/23/20 – Moments: Bears, Video Games, and Green Clocks

Lucas Bear  

Now that Lucas is putting everything he touches in his mouth, I feel comfortable letting him crawl around on the ground when we are at the park. We have this adorable full-body fleece bear suit that keeps him warm when we are outside. It's great.  

It's not that hard to get him in and out of, it has little glove flaps built in to keep his hands warm, and the best part is that the warm hood has little bear ears on it.  

Lucas has a strong crawl. When he sees a step-down, he knows to turn his body around and go feet first, and he can go up steps with ease. He learned this through one of his favorite activities, going up and down the stairs in our house (we make sure to spot him when he is doing this, and we have baby gates to keep him off the stairs).  

When Ollie was at this stage, he would cry every couple of minutes to check in with me. I would go over, hug him, and put him down, and he'd be good to crawl around and play by himself for a little bit longer.  

Lucas doesn't need this at all from me. He's good to explore on his own for long periods of time. The only time when I really interact with him is if he's about to put something in his mouth or if he's crawling in the direction of something unsafe.  

Lucas is an adorable and brave little bear, and it's wonderful to watch him explore the world with joy and curiosity.  

 

Ollie Getting Into Video Games 

On weekend afternoons, while Ethan takes his naps, we've been exploring playing video games. We started with retro video consoles, the NES Classic, SNES Classic, and Genesis Classic. Ollie got really into Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario World.  

Complementing his interest in Star Wars, I got out my GameCube, and we've been working out way through Lego Star Wars II.  

It's an interesting process helping Ollie learn how to play video games. At times I give him space to figure things out, and other times I help him.  

I'm reminded of playing video games with my older brother. At times he would help me through difficult sections, and other times he would be annoyed because I was doing something in the game that made no sense, but I wanted to do it anyway. More often than not, my brother showed me patience with video games, and we had a lot of fun together.  

I'm taking on my brother's role with Ollie, and I see myself doing the same things that my brother did for me. It's fun, sometimes frustrating, and it's nice to have another way to bond with Ollie.  

 

Ethan And The Green Clock 

Ethan has been waking me early in the morning, every day for almost two years.  

When he was in his crib, he would wake up in the middle of the night, crying. I would pick him up and, more often than not, end up with him sleeping with me in my bed. As much as I would try, I couldn't get him to fall back asleep in his bed. One of the problems with this was that Ethan and I didn't get very much sleep when we co-slept. Ethan had this habit of scratching my neck as he slept.   Diana also took a heavy load of Ethan's early morning episodes as well, but I took the lead on Ethan's sleep when after Lucas was born.  

I had some success in getting him to go back to sleep in his crib over the spring, but it never got to the point when he slept for much past 6 am. 

About a month ago, we moved Ethan into Ollie's room. They share a bed with a trundle, and they have been enjoying sleeping in the same room together.  

Instead of Ethan screaming and waking me up in the middle of the night from his crib, I have Ethan waking up and sneaking into my bed early in the morning. Neither of us gets very much sleep when this happens, and we both end up being cranky because of this.  

In a moment of hope, I set up Ollie's old ready-to-wake alarm clock. It's basically an alarm clock that has a function where it lights up green to tell a child when to wake up. For six out of the past seven nights, it has worked!  

Except for one morning, I'm awoken at a reasonable for our household, 6:30 am, with Ethan running into my room holding the clock with its green light lit up. We are both better rested and in better moods because of this clock.  I'm sure there will be more restless nights dealing with Ethan's sleep issues, but it feels like there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  

When Ethan comes into my room with his clock, even brighter than the clock's green light is the smile on his face, full of pride and joy