Oh, Boy!

Jack is a handful. He's nuts. I know, it's not that surprising when you consider his source, but lately he's been out of control. He never wants to sleep; when he gets upset, he does this strange body contortion thing that usually results in slamming his head into either the floor or some sort of furniture; he's even lately decided that he's ready to start running and I think you can picture how that's working out for him. What's really strange, though, is how smart he is. If he does something wrong - like when he trips or he can't figure out how something is done - he sits and examines it, contemplating on the functionality of whatever he is examining. Surprisingly, he usually comes to some sort of epiphany and actually learns something. Unfortunately, this is not always a great thing.

On Friday, we were trying to put Jack down for a nap when we noticed some strange noises. Steph and I peeked around the corner to see Jack standing in his crib, stretching over the side to press the buttons on his "Lullaby player." He even tried a couple times to lift the player into his crib for a closer examination. Seems cute, right? Well, at the time it was, we both got a little chuckle out of it. Later that night was a different story. It was about 9, Jack's bed time, and I had just put him down. In his usual rhythm, he got up and started crying. As usual, Steph and I were waiting him out. And then we heard it. A loud thump followed by a split second of silence and then a bone-scraping scream that turned my innards into melted gelatin. Steph raced into the room before me to find Jack sitting in between his rocking chair and the crib, looking as confused and slightly more upset than his mother and myself. Steph yanked him up and pressed him against her while she quickly examined his legs, head and back. Once all the commotion subsided, Jack quickly fell into a deep sleep, which only made Steph worry more.
As you can imagine, the next morning, Steph had me lower the crib and rehang the nursery door in an effort to get Jack to sleep better.

At this point, I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that parenthood is a horrible adventure riddled with fear and worry. However, Saturday morning was probably one of my favorite "Dad" moments to date. While I was unscrewing the wire frame from the bottom of the crib, Jack came over to hold the screws and investigate my work. He even sat down in my lap and put his little hands over mine on the screwdriver to help out. When we were all done, he clapped and laughed as if he were saying, "Thank you, Daddy. I appreciate you taking the time to convert my crib from a death trap back to a safe sleeping apparatus." And, yes,that is how he talks in my head. Then, when Steph's dad was over helping put the door back up, Jack would stand there holding the hinge pins and a screwdriver laughing that he was getting a door. He was so excited that he had a door to open and close that he sat there for a while letting Sandy come in and then closing the door, then opening it again and letting her run out. So goofy.
Since the changes, he's been sleeping much better. Life is good.