Tired Jack

We're kind of in an interesting place with Jack these days. At school, he naps for anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours, with the result being that putting him to bed is a hassle -- he's in and out of his room for up to an hour after we actually put him to bed. On weekends, he doesn't nap, which makes the last few hours before bed time a whirlwind of Jack being tired possibilities.

1. Meltdowns. So tired he gets upset at just about anything. "I WANTED TO CARRY MY MILK OVER TO THE TABLE!!!!!!" Motorcycle outside, which Emily refers to with annoyance. Jack, his face crumbling: "I DON'T LIKE MO............TOR.................CY....CLES....WAAAAHHHHHHH." (This was tonight, and it was quite spectacular. Totally out of nowhere, beyond, you know, he was really exhausted.) With these we just kind of deal with as calmly and abruptly as possible. "OK, let's go to bed!" He's under my arm and up the stairs in minutes. Pretty much anything can be forgiven when he's like this; he's not in control of himself.

2. Half asleep. These ones are fun. A couple of weeks back he was literally too tired to chew his food at the dinner table. He was sitting there in his chair, shoulders slumped, eyes half-closed, gazing at the windows. Food made it into his mouth, sometimes, but chewing looked like an effort. Sometimes I'd think it was him being difficult, but in this case he was just half-asleep.

3. Meltdowns AND half asleep. Friday we were outside and I was putting dinner on the grill, and our neighbor said hi, and he kind of clammed up, then threw his hat in her general direction. Shy and rude, a winning combination. I said something apologetic, but then after she'd gone spoke sharply to Jack. He gave some kind of reply that annoyed me (it was my first day alone with Jack and Kate, and it had been a day), so I said, "Inside." We went inside and his meltdown began, then he suddenly said, through anger and tears, "I'm going upstairs for my nap!" It was 5 in the evening. He went upstairs. It was quiet. I went up two minutes later, and there he was, in bed fully dressed, sound asleep.

4. Goofy. This is the fun one. It's sort of like he's been up all night and is punchy, which is kind of how I am when I'm really behind on sleep -- maybe most people are like this. A lot of people were in college, although granted some of them might have not been entirely sober. Anyhoo, at dinner tonight we talked about how tomorrow he was going to school and Mommy was going to work and Daddy was staying home with Kate, and somehow it got switched around that Jack would go to work and Daddy would go to school (which sounded OK - nap, afternoon snack, playing in the tumble room), and that was good for some laughs, and then Jack said, indicating his cup of milk, "Or maybe my MILK will go to school. And Miss Ruthie would tell it what to do." And this was all very amusing. Another recent incident was Jack in his bathtub, and he'd recently had some shall we say stomach issues, and there was noise from behind him, and Emily thought the worst as Jack reached behind him.....and pulled out his rubber ducky, which he'd sat on. A smile spreads over Jack's face. "It was my DUCK!" he said solemnly. He knew he'd been funny.