Jumping

We had to get out fairly early this morning. Jack has judo...yes, judo, on Monday mornings. It is a very long class (90" for a 4 year old!!), and it gives Maddie, Noah and I time to be together. Jacks energy generally dominates a situation and its hard to focus on the little ones when he is around. Plus, he gets to spend an hour and a half wrestling with other little boys. Its a no lose situation.

In adjusting to having three kids, some tricks have come in handy. I remember when I was pregnant with Noah I wasn't nervous at all about having a baby, dealing with night feedings, etc. What I was worried about was logistics. How do I, with two arms, get three kids out of the house, into our mini-van, through Target? How will this work. It is nice now that Jack can pretty much get ready 100% by himself, with about four thousand verbal cues. They generally start about 45" before we have to leave and at a conversation volume and end with me yelling at him to go sit in his room until he has his socks, shoes and jacket on. The time outs create great anxiety for him. He has gotten it into his mind that we will leave without him and gets more and more upset as the time-out progresses, and he doesn't get the point of the time out. I've recently modified his time-outs to lessen his anxiety and help him think about the reason behind the time out.

This modification is largely thanks to the Imagination Movers. (Side Note: I love the Imagination Movers almost as much as Jack does. Im not ashamed either.) They have a song called "Time Out". We were listening to it en route to the zoo last week, and during the 4th playing of "Time Out" a new idea came to me. What if I burned this song for him to play during time outs in his room. His first question when we give a time out to him is "When can I get out?", playing this song would alleviate that question. But I still wanted to have him think about the reason he was in the time out, or a solution to the problem. I thought I'd give him a note pad and have him draw a picture to discuss after the time out.

It was awhile until I was able to try it, but...it worked. He listened to the entire song (a perfect 2 minutes and thirty seconds), drew a picture of the Imagination Movers brain. When he came out with picture in hand we were able to discuss his picture and the reason for the time out and a solution. It worked so well that about twenty minutes later I heard he and Maddie playing in their room with the song playing, over and over and over. Im not opposed to giving yourself a time-out.

Back to this morning. One of the logistical solutions that I came up with to get us into the van more smoothly was asking Jack to help Maddie walk to the garage. It is actually pretty cute, he is very demanding and holds her hand and basically pulls her to the garage. All the while he is talking to her in a very motherese way cueing her to step up, down or around things. They are very slow and Maddie falls alot so I have time to pack Noah and myself up and get out the door. So pretty much all I have to do is send them outside with the instructions to go to the car and poof Im down to one kid!!

This morning I did just that and Jack gave up about half way to the garage. He started playing in the yard and abandoned Maddie on the sidewalk. When left alone near ice or snow she is very nervous and cautious about moving. So I found her crying (sobbing) and terrified to move. There is no snow at all on our sidewalk so there was no reason for the drama, but I think she has learned that the sidewalk isn't a safe place to walk and Im guessing it will be July until she learns the snow is gone. So I walked hand in hand with Maddie to the garage. I always wander where kids learn things or if kids just have set of kid-things to do. She began jumping over all the cracks in the sidewalk. Walking up to the crack, lining up both feet on the edge and with great concentration jumping over the crack. She included a very loud grunt with each jump, which was cute because by the time she recovered from the grunt it was time to jump again and so she had to pause and ready herself for the next jump.

I remember doing this as a kid, as Im sure everyone does. But it just struck me that such a simple pleasure doing such a normal everyday could be so much fun when given the attention. I could have gotten frusterated with Jack for ditching his sister and asked him to stop playing to help her our. However it is a nice reminder that even with all the planning and precautions I try to take, letting things happen on their own can provide a warm memory to keep.