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| Friday, January 7, 2011 03:16 PM |
| Preference |
 by Fëanor |
Griffin's been growing up fast. He's babbling and crawling and climbing and picking things up and throwing them. He's also sleeping through the night again, thank God. We almost all went insane and died over Christmas, but the Ferber method saved our minds and our lives. When we first tried the Ferber method, we discovered two things simultaneously: one, Griffin could now pull himself upright given the right surface to climb; and two, the crib mattress really needed to be adjusted to a lower height. Yeah, looking at the video monitor and seeing him about to leap over the edge of the crib and onto the hardwood floor was pretty terrifying. But once we got the crib adjusted, and got used to listening to him yowl and bang his head against things, the Ferber method worked like a charm. Now he falls asleep less than a minute after we put him down, and we practically have to wake him up in the morning so we can get going.
But that's not what I meant to write about when I started this post. Part of Griffin's new bedtime ritual involves reading him a handful of stories before we dump him in his crib and run for it. For a while I was picking them mostly randomly, with a slight lean towards those with a calming, nighttime theme. He generally enjoys books now, and likes to help lift flaps and turn pages and so on. But one night he just was not interested at all in the particular book I'd chosen. He kept pushing it aside and lunging for the bookshelf. We really weren't sure what he wanted, but when we let him get to the bookshelf, he shoved another book out of the way and grabbed Ole Risom and Richard Scarry's I Am a Bunny. We thought at first this was a mere coincidence. After all, often if he's reading one book and another is visible, he will try to get to that one, following some kind of instinctive, primal, grass-is-always-greener directive. But we've since learned that, no, I Am a Bunny is the book he wants at bedtime, and he will brook no other. I can never get even halfway through any other book before he pushes it aside and makes a grab for I Am a Bunny. I'm now reading it to him three times in a row every night. It is painfully cute how much he delights in that book - how his face lights up when he sees all the pretty butterflies, how he points at Nicholas the bunny when he finds him on the page. Actually, in general he is pretty awesome to be around near bedtime, as when he gets really sleepy he also gets goofy and giggly and just laughs at things for no reason. He still starts crying as soon as we put him down in his crib, but it doesn't last long.
It's really fascinating and wonderful and sad and terrifying watching him develop and figure things out. |
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