Two Beaner Notes

Since I haven't been particularly good about posting developmental milestones in the past couple months, I wanted to write about a couple small things now, before I forget.

The Beaner finally learned to jump today. He's been leaping off curbs, doorsteps, stairs, and structures at the playground for months... one foot at a time. We would yell "jump!", and he would step off and start giggling, thinking he had jumped. We tried to tell him at first that it took two feet to jump, but after awhile we just cheered the big step and said to ourselves, good enough.

Well, tonight he started jumping with a vengeance—really jumping, with both feet. While I was unpacking my hockey bag on the landing outside the storage room, the Beaner jumped off the bottom step. I didn't see him do it; I just heard him squeal, "I jumped! I gonna jump AGAIN!" I said, "OK, but be careful," since the space available to jump in was tight. The second time he kind of chickened out and did a half jump/half step, and his indecision cost him: He ended up face-planting.

Undeterred, he assured me he was fine and got back on the step to jump again. He repeated the process over and over again, even after I'd said "OK, ONE more time" at least twice, and even after I turned out the light. I finally had to pick him up and carry him up the stairs to the tub.

After his bath, he wanted to try jumping some more. It totally reminded me of my childhood, of skills learned in giant breakthroughs and then repeated over and over again because I couldn't quite believe I'd mastered them... and also because I was afraid I'd forget. He jumped off the little stepstool at the foot of his bed about 20 times, occasionally falling backwards on his butt because he always landed stiff-legged, instead of bending his knees. I hadn't noticed the stiff-legged landings when we were downstairs, but as he was naked for half of these jumps and diaper-clad for the remainder, his knee position was obvious. I tried to demonstrate landing with knees bent, but he seemed only to be able to bend before he jumped and after he'd already planted, not as he was landing. Oh well: that'll just be the next thing to work on!


One night couple months ago, back when I was still snuggling the Beaner to sleep in a chair and then transferring him to his crib, I was trying to talk him down from a rather hyper state to a sleep-ready one. (He usually went in ready to sleep, but not on this night.) I forget how it started, but I ended up listing all the people who love him. "Daddy loves you, and Mommy loves you, and Grandma loves you, and Grandpa loves you, and Grandma Cho loves you, and Grandpa Cho loves you..." and on and on until he fell asleep.

Fast-forward to sleeping-in-the-big-boy-bed time. It's so much easier to put him to sleep now that I can just lie next to him and doze off myself while he settles down and starts in with the neck kneading. Usually all that's required is a few "it's time for sleeping" reminders, and then silence. Tonight I was actively trying not to doze off so I could get downstairs as soon as possible to watch 24, so I happened to catch something I hadn't identified as a pattern before: Not for the first time, I heard the Beaner whispering to himself, "...and Grandpa loves you, and Hannah loves you, and Daddy loves you, and Aunt Lisa loves you, and Mommy loves you..." as he drifted off to sleep.

Posted by Lori in parenthood at 11:38 PM on January 22, 2007

Comments (2)

kathy:

what a sweet story :-). I wanted to tell you that yesterday, we were in my office and Sam saw the thank you note you'd sent on the desk and when he saw The Beaner's face on the front of it, he called his name, clear as day :-).

The whispering to himself really tugs at the heart. What a sweetie!

Comments

what a sweet story :-). I wanted to tell you that yesterday, we were in my office and Sam saw the thank you note you'd sent on the desk and when he saw The Beaner's face on the front of it, he called his name, clear as day :-).

Posted by: kathy at January 24, 2007 3:40 PM

The whispering to himself really tugs at the heart. What a sweetie!

Posted by: juliloquy [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 25, 2007 10:11 AM

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