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August 10, 2001
I love the boy, but Jacob is driving me insane!
He's abandoned napping. Completely and all at once. Even though he gets painfully cranky all afternoon. He stays up very late and gets up very early. I'd say he gets 9 hours of sleep a day, from 11pm to 7am. *And* he wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse.
He's become Danger Boy. He climbs *everything*. Last time I said that, I didn't mean everything, but I mean it now! He climbs chairs, strollers, the carseat, bookshelves, the toilet... I'm forever catching him precariously balanced *on the railing of the crib*. He climbs up the tv cabinet, standing on mere inches, quite a distance off the floor. He climbs the shelves in the fridge. He literally climbs the walls. Our walls are made log cabin style, with plenty of toeholds, and he climbs it like a monkey. So far, he hasn't fallen from any great height, but it terrifies me anyway. He often knocks things down from shelves.
He spits. His new favorite thing is to take a big mouthful of whatever he's drinking, and either let his mouth fall open, spilling juice (or whatever) all over him and the floor, or spits it into his palm with the same effect. He does it over and over again, with every sip. When I scold him, he doesn't seem to understand what all the fuss is about. He refuses to help me clean up, even though helping used to be a favorite thing. I have a dozen wet spots on my carpet, and the kitchen floor is sticky.
He gets into goo. Any kind of goo. I clean him off over and over again. Yesterday, he managed to coat his hands, arms, and chest in: dish soap, Neosporin, plant fertilizer (not exactly a goo), moisturizing saline nose gel, and shampoo. He also wrote all over himself with a blue marker.
He opens his sippy cups and dumps them over. After I scrubbed blue ink out of my orange velvet chair, he poured a full cup of cranberry juice on it.
He wakes up Logan. When I'm nursing Logan to sleep, Jake will come up to be shouting that he wants to nurse. Or he'll start banging toys, or throwing them with might bangs and crashes.
He throws things. At people, at the walls, at the tv, at windows. Hard. He sweeps everything off the dinner table or the side table so he can stand upon it.
He is sooo disobedient! He ignores half of what I say and screams "No!" at the other half. I don't know what to do! No discipline I've tried has had an impact. Anything I do is either ignored or screamed at, and then he does what he wants to do anyway.
What bothers me the most is the spitting thing. Argh! It can send me into a rage faster than most anything! And it's not like I can just take away his drink, because then he goes to the fridge and tries to get himself another! Even if it means spilling half of it on the floor!
He shrieks at the cat, who tries to run away, and at the cockatiel, who’s probably going through a nervous breakdown. He pulls the kitchen chairs up to the sink, and takes everything out of a nearby drawer, gets it soapy and wet and puts it back in the drawer.
Some of his behavior I can understand as just testing his boundaries, and the frustration of being a toddler and having a baby brother. But some of it I just don't get. Like why on earth is spitting out his drink so much fun??? And what can I do to get him to stop??
Logan, on the other hand, is so mellow and easy. He takes predictable naps, sleeps almost all night long, nursing just once. He laughs a lot. He is quite forgiving when I wake him up yelling at Jake. (sigh)
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