This time, I remembered to charge and bring my camera... but I forgot it in the car. How stupid! Luckily, my cellphone had enough juice to take a snapshot. Here's Zack playing with the other kids in Lapsit .
Goodbye FrancisM!
17 years ago
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Lapsit for Pre-Walkers: March Session 2
This time, I remembered to charge and bring my camera... but I forgot it in the car. How stupid! Luckily, my cellphone had enough juice to take a snapshot. Here's Zack playing with the other kids in Lapsit .
On Night Terrors
Sundays are usually a busy day for us. We go to church and socialize with our friends from the parish. After which, we go to my parents' house for our weekly family time. On a typical Sunday, we're out by noon and back by close to midnight.
We didn't realize how bad our Sunday routine was until we recently noticed a pattern in Zack's Sunday night wakings. He'd usually fall asleep on my parents bed, wake up when we're strapping him into the carseat, stay barely awake for the 10 minute drive then pass out for the night on the crib. Since we're unable to follow our night-night routine (bath, lotion, sleepy music, books, bedtime prayer) on Sundays, he'd wake up crying several times throughout the night. and We'd try to soothe him back to sleep, either with his pacifier or by rocking him in our arms. Normally, that would do it, and he'd go back to bed for about two hours or so before the whole things would start all over again.
Last Sunday was different. He woke up screaming his guts out. I picked him up, tried the pacifier, rocked him to sleep, attempted to sing him a song and pulled all the tricks out of the hat. Nothing worked. He kept crying and kicking and wiggling. A few minutes into this, it suddenly hit me that he might be having some sort of night terror. I remembered reading about this online and about what caregivers may do when this occurs -- nothing! Kids experiencing night terrors look awake but are actually asleep and unable to respond to soothing techniques. I just held him in my arms and sat on the bed until the episode ended. After about 11 minutes or so, he fell asleep again, as if nothing happened!
Lesson learned: Do not stay out too late and religiously follow our night-night routine. This will help him unwind properly and let go of the super tiring day (or in our case, super tiring weekend).
We didn't realize how bad our Sunday routine was until we recently noticed a pattern in Zack's Sunday night wakings. He'd usually fall asleep on my parents bed, wake up when we're strapping him into the carseat, stay barely awake for the 10 minute drive then pass out for the night on the crib. Since we're unable to follow our night-night routine (bath, lotion, sleepy music, books, bedtime prayer) on Sundays, he'd wake up crying several times throughout the night. and We'd try to soothe him back to sleep, either with his pacifier or by rocking him in our arms. Normally, that would do it, and he'd go back to bed for about two hours or so before the whole things would start all over again.
Last Sunday was different. He woke up screaming his guts out. I picked him up, tried the pacifier, rocked him to sleep, attempted to sing him a song and pulled all the tricks out of the hat. Nothing worked. He kept crying and kicking and wiggling. A few minutes into this, it suddenly hit me that he might be having some sort of night terror. I remembered reading about this online and about what caregivers may do when this occurs -- nothing! Kids experiencing night terrors look awake but are actually asleep and unable to respond to soothing techniques. I just held him in my arms and sat on the bed until the episode ended. After about 11 minutes or so, he fell asleep again, as if nothing happened!
Lesson learned: Do not stay out too late and religiously follow our night-night routine. This will help him unwind properly and let go of the super tiring day (or in our case, super tiring weekend).
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Lapsit for Pre-Walkers: March Session 1
Last Monday, Zack and I went to our first Lapsit session. Lapsit is a free program at our local library where kids under 12 months can come together for story-time, parent-child activities and baby socialization. Of the 7 babies in the class, Zack was the youngest. Most of the others were 1 month older than him.
As soon as we were done registering and getting the class hand-outs, we sat on the floor next to a soon to be 12-month old kid (whose name I still can't pronounce!). Being a bigger kid, he sat tall and upright already. To my amazement, my son also tried to sit as upright as he can for as long as he could hold it. It was unusual for Zack to sit up straight, moreso for a long period of time. At home, he'd rather roll around, wiggle like a worm on his belly or stand up holding on to mommy, daddy or the couch. When we try to get him to sit, he'd just bend down and eat his toes. I guess he was trying to get a really good first impression from his new playmate. LOL!
The session went by quickly. Werecited sang nursery rhymes, did some baby exercises, danced the waltz, etc. At one point, the facilitator went around reading books to the kids. As she did this, Zack seemed to get really impatient. He wanted to turn the pages of the book already before the story teller was ready to move on. Hahaha! He was also very busy trying to charm the female library volunteers... so typical of him! (Just like his dad!)
The last activity for the night was baby play time. They laid a big blankie on the floor and put toys in the middle for the kids to play with. I think Zack got overwhelmed because he initially laid frozen on his tummy watching the other kids attack the toy pile. I tried to offer him a toy but he seemed more interested in observing the other kids. At one point, one kid (lightly) hit him at the back of his head (in Filipino: binatukan siya!). I wanted to see how he would handle the ugly, bully kid. Well, he was just too focused on what was happening in front of him so he just ignored the kid and let his mommy deal with him (and yeah she did!).
I wish I had a camera to capture our first session! I was too embarrassed to look like an ultra-eager mom, only to find out that the other moms were more picture-happy than me. Oh well! I will bring one next time.
As soon as we were done registering and getting the class hand-outs, we sat on the floor next to a soon to be 12-month old kid (whose name I still can't pronounce!). Being a bigger kid, he sat tall and upright already. To my amazement, my son also tried to sit as upright as he can for as long as he could hold it. It was unusual for Zack to sit up straight, moreso for a long period of time. At home, he'd rather roll around, wiggle like a worm on his belly or stand up holding on to mommy, daddy or the couch. When we try to get him to sit, he'd just bend down and eat his toes. I guess he was trying to get a really good first impression from his new playmate. LOL!
The session went by quickly. We
The last activity for the night was baby play time. They laid a big blankie on the floor and put toys in the middle for the kids to play with. I think Zack got overwhelmed because he initially laid frozen on his tummy watching the other kids attack the toy pile. I tried to offer him a toy but he seemed more interested in observing the other kids. At one point, one kid (lightly) hit him at the back of his head (in Filipino: binatukan siya!). I wanted to see how he would handle the ugly, bully kid. Well, he was just too focused on what was happening in front of him so he just ignored the kid and let his mommy deal with him (and yeah she did!).
I wish I had a camera to capture our first session! I was too embarrassed to look like an ultra-eager mom, only to find out that the other moms were more picture-happy than me. Oh well! I will bring one next time.
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