Transitioning

This past week Jack has moved up into the next room at Kiddie Kottage.  He's now with the 2 year olds.  I was a little apprehensive about this simply because he's used to being the oldest in his class and he's also used to taking 2 naps a day (that's a lie - I've been used to two naps...and I miss it.  Desperately.)  Now he's the youngest in the class, takes one 90 minute nap after lunch, and is the ONLY boy - sort of.  Thankfully another boy comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours but other than that it's him and the girls.  While he seems to like it ok I'm pretty sure the other girls don't share his passion for trains.  Anyway, this nap transition has led to some unpleasant side effects.  For the 2 weeks that he's been slowly transitioning, I've noticed an increase in crankiness, a propensity to throw things, loss of appetite, and the worst - his sleep is not exactly normal.  By this I mean he wakes up every night for 3 hours and just cries.  That's it.  Cries.  He's not hurt, he's not sick. (I even took him to the doctor to check - see above).  Just for some ungodly reason he likes to wake up and cry.  The only thing that cures this crying is for us to rock him.  Lord knows we can't do that all night and Lord knows he is NOT coming into bed with us.  So we have resorted to closing all doors, turning up the fan, and once again - crying it out.  Perhaps this is catching up to me since he never really made us suffer too much when we first taught him to cry it out.  I suppose the main reason for this post is so that when I eventually go through this with future baby #2, I won't be wondering why I'm more sleep deprived than ever when our child is approaching 20 months.  I need a record so that momnesia doesn't strike again!  

He may not be sleeping but he does have enough energy to dance!  Notice the train on the chair... always the train.  Also for the record, we weighed in at 27 lbs 10 oz as we approach 20 months.  Not much change from the last visit so we are maintaining!

This week I also attempted to get the annual Christmas card photo taken.  The issue was that not only is Jack not the most cooperative at the moment, but he also is OBSESSED with his Thomas DVD.  I couldn't get my little elf to actually look at the camera. These were my best shots.  Sad.

 Thomas infatuation at its best.

Bean distracted him but in the wrong direction.

 Then we ate the ornaments...

I wondered if using props would help.

It didn't.

Then I tried tough love and just turned the DVD off.  Can you see the distress?

It got worse.

Oh the pout.

Finally - I got this one.  It's a little crazy but fits for my mischievous little elf. :)