Lights and Nose

This morning (Saturday), we got a late start. We ended up going to The Garland for breakfast. They have a small courtyard outside. It was cool but we were all wearing long-sleeved shirts. We were the only ones in the courtyard, which meant that Henry could run around at his leisure. The breakfast was excellent.

Henry came home and took a nap. He was a bit picky during lunch. I took him to my parents' house around 3:30PM. On the way to their house, I was playing a CD of 80s music. One song was a rap song. As I peered in the mirror, I saw Henry dancing in his car seat. This isn't the first time that I've noticed that Henry likes rap. We randomly rotate through the various music stations on our DirecTV. Jazz, Broadway, Latin, Gospel, New Age, Metal, Country, you name it. The other night (Wednesday, I think), we gave Henry the remote and let him find a music station. He chose Hip Hop Nation. He liked some Kayne West song. My one qualm about his liking rap is finding artists that don't use the b-word, c-word, f-word, s-word, don't objectify women, and don't glorify violence. If anyone has rap or hip hop suggestions that meet my qualifications, please let me know.

After dropping Henry at Mimi and Poppy's house, I went to Borders. I figured that DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince would have some songs that would probably meet my criteria. I remember liking the song "Parents Just Don't Understand" as teen. Unfortunately, Borders didn't have The Fresh Prince in stock, so it will have to be an amazon.com order.

It turns out that Henry likes heavy metal too. On Friday, Patti was over to help clean the house. She brought her walkman. Henry got a hold of it. Patti had been listening to the radio, so it was already turned out. Anyway, Henry was holding the walkman when Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize" came on, and he started dancing to it.

Mimi and Poppy dropped Henry off around 7:30PM. He had had a large dinner at their place. We played for a little while in the living room. I whipped out the bouncy horse that can be used with a video game on the TV. Basically, when the child bounces on the horse, a picture on the TV will change (like switching from a Lion to a Goat). It's cute. Of course, Henry didn't want to play with the bouncy horse. He found the remote to the video game and wanted to explore the menu options. He figured out that pushing the button changed the menu on the screen. Wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Every time, the cursor lit up one of the options, the TV would say "Action-Reaction." Action-reaction indeed.

Henry played with bath tub paints before taking a bath. He did some painting with his feet. He really got into it. He also enjoyed cleaning up the paints with the wash cloth afterward. While in the bath tub, Henry noticed the lights above him. He calls them "ites."



After his bath, we looked at "Pics!" for a few minutes. Jeff took him to bed. He didn't settle down, so I gave it a whirl. No luck. I ended up putting him in his crib, because he wouldn't settle down but was obviously tired. I let him cry for about 4 minutes in his crib. I'm not a fan of the "cry it out" method. Just doesn't seem quite right to me. I'm much more into the attachment approach recommended by Dr. Sears. However, when Henry won't settle in our arms, and he needs sleep, it seems to me that we need to get him to the point where he can learn to calm himself down without our assistance. So, I figured that we'd try a middle ground approach. Tomorrow night, we'll try for 5 minutes by himself in crib, then come get him. Next night, we'll try to stretch it to 10 minutes. I want him to know that we are here for him, but I also want him to be OK with self-soothing. After 4 minutes tonight, he was very upset, so I got him out of the crib. Settled him down with his bottle, but then of course the bottle ran out. Had to go with Henry to the kitchen. He then saw Dada and was upset that Dada wasn't coming into the bedroom. Nevertheless, I managed to rock him to sleep within about 5 minutes, which was good.