Separation Anxiety

Yep, you guessed it. My little man is starting to exhibit signs of separation anxiety any time I leave a room. Even if it's just going to the kitchen to get a drink, or to go to the bathroom. If he sees mom leave a room, or realizes after a few minutes I've managed to sneak away when he's not looking, he starts to cry. And he continues to cry, even escalate to a point of bawling loudly and occasionally screaming, until I return to him. And then he puts his hands in the air to be picked up.

Sigh.

I don't want to reinforce a bad habit, but I also don't want to see him keep crying. Not sure how to deal with this one. Anyone have some suggestions?

What a Beautiful Day

Last Saturday my sister Alissa got married. She married a great guy named Derek.

It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful celebration. It made me reflect on what a wonderful person my sister has become, and how proud I am of her.

I remember countless times playing together as children, dreaming of the future and all that it held. I remember getting into trouble as teenagers, and fighting, and making up. They were turbulent times. But I knew that if anyone ever messed with me, no matter what kind of argument we may have had, my little sister loved me fiercely and would defend me. I remember difficult times, and times of tears and sadness. But also times of joy, and growth, and discovery.

And as I watched my sister walk up that aisle, and saw her glowing beauty and excited eyes, I could feel a thousand memories well up inside me and tears came to my eyes.

I am so happy that Lissy has found the man that suits her perfectly. What a beautiful day...

Busy Times

The past couple weeks have been quite busy for our family.

On Saturday September 11th, Tim and I competed in our second (and final) triathlons of the season. The triathlon was in Wasaga beach. Tim competed in the Sprint distance triathlon and I completed the "Give-it-a-tri" distance (400 m swim, 10 km bike, 2.5 km run). It was challenging for me, the swim didn't go very well, I had a lot of swimmers around me that I couldn't seem to get away from, and they were bumping me from all sides. Quite frustrating. However, I felt that my run went better than the first tri I competed in, and I finished, so that's all that matters. Now I have motivation to complete more and do better next year!

On Sunday I headed to Belleville where I stayed over for the night at the in-laws. We had a nice little visit and then on Monday I made my way down to Ottawa for the week. My sister Alissa got married on September 18th (more about this in the next post), so I went down for the week to help out in any way I could. I found myself driving all over the place in Ottawa picking up items, dropping things off, sitting in traffic, making fudge, sitting in traffic, washing rocks (don't ask ha ha), sitting in traffic, etc etc. There was a great bachelorette on Thursday night, good food and lots of celebrating. It was a wonderful week overall. But I won't miss the driving, or the traffic.

We got back to Barrie on Sunday night, and this week, every evening we are busy taking our SCUBA certification. This is something we've wanted to do for a long time, so it's exciting to finally do it. However, I can be quite apprehensive about the water and tonight we have to take our masks off and breathe underwater without the mask (but still with regulator in mouth) for an entire minute!!!! YIKES! I am pretty nervous about that one. Sigh. The things I put myself through. And all this week, Sammy is with a babysitter in the evenings. Lots of fun for all this week. I'll keep you posted.

Adorable Baby Face

CIO

Ever hear of the "Cry It Out" philosophy? The basic idea is that if a child refuses to go to sleep, and just cries, that you need to let them cry it out, and then they'll put themselves to sleep. I've never been a subscriber to this idea, I feel like if my son is crying, he needs something and I should try and address that need.

However, in the last week, every time we put Sam down for a nap and/or bed, he screams. Not just cries, but screams. Works himself up into a frenzy and will cry/scream for prolonged periods of time unless you pick him up. Predominately this behaviour is only exhibited in his room, sometimes even as we approach his bedroom, or more often the crib, he starts to cry in your arms. It's very challenging. And I've been picking him up and comforting him, because it feels right and because my gut tells me it's the right thing to do. But this behaviour is continuing, and may actually be getting worse. Yesterday he didn't nap at all, and REALLY cried/screamed for at least 30 minutes before bed last night.

I was talking to someone about this issue last Wednesday, and they said that around 8 months a child begins to understand the concept of cause-and-effect. That their actions have consequences. So if he cries/makes a fuss, he will get attention OR won't have to go down for a nap. I've been pondering this idea all weekend, and even though Sam is only 7 1/2 months AND is teething, I think he's manipulating us. Every time a toy is taken away from him (i.e. his spoon because it needs to be cleaned), he'll scream. Every time he's put down from being carried, he'll scream. Every time he's put down for a nap, even if he's been rubbing his eyes and yawning, he'll scream. So now I am faced with a dilemma. I don't want to ignore him if something is wrong, but I also don't want to reinforce bad behaviour.

Last night when we put him down for the night, like I said, he screamed for at least 30 minutes. I went in and soothed him periodically, but didn't take him out of the room. Eventually I just had to leave him and let him cry. It was really hard. The same thing for this morning's nap. As far as I can tell, nothing is wrong. But it's really hard to just let him cry.

Adventure Baby

Baby in Action: Taking on the Jolly Jumper

Trying out a little wakeboarding....

Having a little "Sam Time" - and Hudson came out for a visit!