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We have been home from Jersey 2 weeks now and it's only been in the last 2 or 3 days that we are starting to see our normal, happy go lucky child back. I even took him to the Dr. last week thinking, "Ok, he did have a fever the night before we left for Jersey, maybe he's still got something lingering in his system". Much to my disappointment, the Dr. just said that he might have lingering bits of a virus but no ear infections or anything he can give us meds for. Grrrrrrrrrrrreat...
Let me back up a bit. Just before we left for Jersey, to visit Lani & her brood, Will was starting to show more and more frustration. I could see him get irritated because I didn't give him what he wanted, or the way he wanted it, it's the wrong color, size, shape, or I looked at him wrong...who knows! He is babbling like crazy and says a few "words" that are really just pieces of a word but we know what he means, like "Bah" is Ball, "Buh" is Buzz (yes, as in Buzz Lightyear), "Bah-Bah" is sippy cup. We tried sign language, but the only sign that has really stuck is for "bubbles", and that doesn't really help in the middle of a full blown meltdown.
Neither here, nor there, but the night before we left for Jersey, I'm up late packing. I am an idiot and go in the bathroom next to Will's room to get some toiletries and make too much noise. Will wakes up. It's around 10pm. I was planning to get up at 4:30am to shower and be out the door by 5:30am... Well, Will wakes up at 10pm and is radiating heat. Oh crap. I take him temperature a few times and it's over a 100, easy. Sometimes I got 105 - NO way!, and a few other times I got 101-103. Once I got him calmed down, we gave him some Tylenol and put him in a luke warm bath and tried to keep his attention on playing instead of on the cold uncomfy bath. We also took his temperature every 10 minutes. Finally, his fever broke around 11:30pm. Needless to say, it was a rough night, but there were no signs of a fever after that. Really weird.
So anyways, we get to Lani's house in 1 piece. Hunter is a talker. I love him to bits because he has this conversation over and over:
Hunter: Hi!
Me: Hi!
Hunter: How are you?
Me: Good. How are you?
Hunter: I'm good. :)
That's just a small portion of the many many other things this kid can say. He knows his alphabet and numbers for crying out loud and just turned 2! He's one smart cookie! Well, Will is super frustrated that he can't say the stuff coming out of Hunter's mouth. I could tell as he's watching Hunter talk that he was trying to figure out how to do that, and was probably a little jealous. But alas, the meltdowns continued while we were there and got worse when we got home.
Our morning ritual became very tumultuous. Will would wake up pissed. Usually, we get his "Bah-Bah" milk, and go sit on the sofa together to watch cartoons and give us a chance to wake up. Neither one of us are morning people, so we take a good 30-45 minutes, sometimes an hour, to really get awake and with it. The second he saw the milk, he went crazy! He was screaming, arching his back, in full on psycho inconsolable meltdown. Sometimes that would go on for 20-30-45 minutes straight! We would take it away, hand it to him, he didn't want it, then he did, then he didn't. It was this ridiculous guessing game. Hubby & I were, needless to say, frustrated with this whole situation which turned into sleepless nights and too-early mornings. And it's not even breakfast time yet!
Finally!, something clicked. Saturday, Will & I had a great day. Hubby came home from work and everyone was in a good mood. What a change of pace from the last week and a half! Will even went and gave Daddy big hugs and kisses when he walked in the door.
Sunday, Will saw lots of family and friends and he was awesome all day. We even went outside, kicked a ball around, and blew bubbles. Out of nowhere, he points and says "Bubbles!"!!! Yeah! In the bath, he was making all kinds of different sounds, including what sounded like "Maguay". Um...we haven't watched Gremlins, I'm not sure what he's talking about.
On Monday, he pointed outside and said "Bir", talking about the birds having their breakfast. And that night he said "Milk" when he was ready for bed. There were also lots of different sounds coming all day, including some "T-t-t-t-t"s, "Ch"s, and "Th"s.
Lani basically said "I told you so" when I told her I think we had a break through. She was totally right though. Just when Hubby and I were at our breaking point and thought we just couldn't take much more of this behavior, words start coming through. Instantly, the meltdowns have lessened. I know they won't go away completely because he's a strong-willed kid. He's going to test and re-test his boundaries until he learns and sometimes the only way to learn is to make the mistake. Climbing on top of the coffee table, standing up on it, and dancing to the iCarly theme song is going to end badly because we constantly have to tell him "Sit on your bottom!".
It's funny that we tend to get our kids together when Will is on the verge of a new skill. They hang out for a few days and it just clicks because he sees Hunter cruisin' around doing what he wants to be doing. Lani and her family were here last September, when Will was 6 months old. A day or two after seeing Hunter walking around, Will was sitting straight up like a pro and crawling like crazy. Then we flew out to Jersey when Will was about 8 months old. He was standing up, holding on to the coffee table by himself. Not even 6 weeks after we got home, he was walking after seeing Hunter run around. I think Hunter gives him that extra nudge he needs.
Thank you Hunter! You've given me my sanity back!
I have a 16 month-old - who's been tantrumming like a 2 year-old since he was a year old! It's very frustrating when toddlers are trying to tell us something and we have no clue what it is! Mine also has a few words but mostly it's babble. Ack! It'll get better. It will!
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