Choose your own adventure

For some reason, I've been thinking of the choose you own adventure series applied to parenting recently.  Here are a few scenarios that ran through my head.

Your son wakes up at 4:30, an hour an a half before he should get up.  He is standing in the crib rattling the door knob, but not crying. He could be teething and has had a cold for the last week do you:


a) Ignore him and hope he goes back to sleep
b) Go in to comfort him
c) Get him up
d) Give him a glass of milk
e) Turn off the monitor and set the alarm for 6:00

Your son wakes up early from his nap in a very bad mood, crying and screaming.  Do you:

a) Comfort him and let him sleep on you
b) Get him up, abandon the nap
c) Ignore him
d) Comfort him and put him back in the crib

You've joined the YMCA which provides daycare for parents while they work out.  In theory, this allows you and your spouse to work out together.  In practice, your son screams and throws tantrums when he is dropped off at the YMCA daycare, despite being happy to go to regular daycare 5 days a week.  The providers come and get one of you after about 15 minutes.  Do you:

a) Try to take your son extra days so he gets used to it
b) Cancel your YMCA membership
c) Keep the same schedule and hope he adjusts on his own
d) Give up trying to work out together and take turns watching him at the Y

This week, the answer we've choose in each case is a.

Favorite Song

Davis' favorite song right now is a great little number about counting and the food chain. Kristen learned this in her mom's group.

It goes:

3 little monkeys, swinging from a tree
Taunting Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, No you can't catch me

(whisper)
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
and snapped a monkey right from the tree

(repeat for remaining monkeys)

There are hand motions that go with each part of the song. He really enjoys the hand motions and the whispering part of the song and seems to anticipate the snapping of a monkey from the tree.

Grammie made up an alternative version of the song:

3 little squirrels hanging on a tree
Teasing Miss Lilly Cat You can't get me, No you can't get me!

Along stalks Miss Lilly Cat quiet as can be
and snatches that squirrel right out of the tree.

(repeat for reaming squirrels)

No little squirrels hanging on the tree.
One Miss Lilly Cat as happy as she can be!

Weekend Update

Its been a while since our last post, and I apologize for that. I really don't know how to tie all these thoughts together, so here you go:

• Davis has two modes: friends and strangers. He is smiley, giggly and happy with friends and concerned with strangers. Apparently Kristen was the same way as a baby.
• Tummy time is going much better. Davis can really prop himself up on his arms. Instead of 30 seconds of tummy time, we are getting minutes.
  
• Davis rolled over for the first time on his own this week.
• We think Davis will really like sleeping on his tummy. He needs to be able to roll over more reliably before we feel comfortable with him on his tummy.
• Davis slept for 3 hours in the crib one time -- a new record.
• Sleep is getting a little easier. When he wakes up at night now, he mostly stays sleepy instead of getting very excited. This has made it a lot easier to get him back down to sleep. Getting him to bed in the first place has still been tough, but things are going better. We are still using the swing a lot and are very thankful to have it.
  
• Davis is reaching out for things a lot more. He has grabbed for toys, people and even reached out and petted / grabbed Domino a little.
• This was our first week, of 6, with Grandma taking care of Davis. They are doing really well together. Just like when grammie was here, I'm really happy that family can take care of him instead of daycare and they get this bonding time together.
  
• We have new glass doors between our office and living room. When our laundry was drying in the office with the doors closed, Domino tried to jump onto the rack from the living room. I'll leave you to imagine what happened.
• I hurt my back last week (I think a combination of riding too hard last week and straining my hamstrings and doing a lot of work in the basement). I was only able to ride to work one day this week. It is improving.
• Our weather was hot and muggy this week. I was really thankful for having ceiling fans and air conditioning.
  
• Kristen got a new netbook computer. Its super small, which works great for taking back and forth to school to use while pumping and on the train. Its been a great investment so far.
• Grandpa comes this Wednesday for two weeks. We're all looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he is somewhat allergic to the cats, which means a battle to keep them out of the second bedroom has been going on. If you have spent any time with our cats, you'll know they a) love going where they shouldn't and b) love sleeping on clean clothes / sheets / pillows.
  
• Our dryer broke this week. We can do about 1/2 load per day on the drying rack. The repairman from Sears is coming Tuesday and it should be under warranty (by about 5 days).
  
• I took the car to the shop twice this week and still don't have ABS brakes. I'm going to have to take it to the Honda dealer in Newton to see if they can fix it next week. The theory is there is something wrong in the master control computer. It has burned through three brand new left-read sensors so far. I think I've been to the shop now a total of 8 times for ABS work (only charged the first time at each place though).
  
• Next Sunday is the Danskin triathlon. Unfortunately, we have to go out and pick up the registration packets on Saturday, so that means at least 4 hours of driving with Davis this weekend. I'm super excited for Kristen though. She just amazes me.
  
• We went to a nice BBQ at Dave and Megan's tonight with Davis and Grandma. Good friends, good food, good conversation. We stopped for ice cream on the way home.
• Saturday we went to a first birthday party. It was like having a look into the future. I can't belive how much he will develop in the next year. Just amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
• One of our favorite songs with Davis is the Monkey Song. It goes "3 little monkies, swinging from the tree / teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me / no you can't catch me / (whisper) along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as could be / and snapped (make a clap) a monkey from the tree" There are hand motions that go with each part and you then repeat for 2 and 1 monkies. Yesterday at dinner, I was holding Davis while Kristen sang the song and I moved Davis' arms to the song. He absoutley loved it. He was just estatic.
• Kristen gave me a great haircut this weekend. It reminded me of something I asked her last time she cut my hair: Question: "How is my gray hair?" Answer: "Thinning". I think it is funny.
  
• We booked our tickets to go to Seattle. We'll be there from August 27th to September 6th (those are our travel dates). We are really looking forward to being there (not so much the travel). We have a direct flight out on Jet Blue and used some miles to come back on American Airlines with one stop (the Jet Blue return is a red-eye). We don't have a lot of solid plans yet for Seattle, but would like to go to our friend's wedding reception, celebrate our aniversary, see family and friends and relax. It sounds like there is a good chance that James, Stephanie and Melanie will be in Seattle also around that time.
  
• I'm probably going to get a webcam sometime soon. I discovered video-chat with James last weekend and really enjoyed seeing Melanie. We'll probably get setup with Skype and google video chat. We just have to get the webcam and figure out why the microphone didn't work.
• I haven't taken a lot of pictures this week. But I have some. Hopefully my next post will be some pictures of the little guy.