Re-purposed Laptop

Judah is officially scared of the dark, which just adds to our getting him to bed drama fun time.  The first night he woke up crying and said he was scared of the wall and the curtain.  We talked him through that, and turned on a night light.  Last night before bed we talked about not being afraid, about the wall and the curtain (again), and he seemed to feel better.  He asked for music but their CD player is busted.  Instead I left my laptop in their room with the 'soundscapes and lullabies' station on Pandora radio.  They both slept well.  We don't have the TV on when the kids are awake.  The scariest thing he has ever viewed was The Land Before Time once.  Otherwise they just watch videos of aquatic animals and whatnot.  I'm not sure where he's getting this fear, but I suppose his imagination is blooming.  I remember experiencing this as a child, and it was no joke to me at the time :-(

In other news, I am finding that teaching a child empathy is the biggest challenge yet.  He is picking on Wyatt A LOT.  Yesterday Wyatt was awfully tired, and therefore sobbing before nap.  I couldn't find his elephant anywhere, but I knew it had been in his crib a few minutes earlier.  After searching for 20 minutes with no help from Judah, I confronted him about it directly (since I knew he was the one who hid it).  I took his RayRay in my arms and said "See how Mommy has your RayRay?  Does that make you feel sad?"

"Yes"

"Do you hear Wyatt crying?  He is sad because Judah hid his elephant."

"Yeah."

"Now please go get his elephant."

The little stinker marched directly to the elephant's hidden location and brought it to Wyatt.

So frustrating!  


On a lighter note, Judah walked past my bedroom door first thing in the morning.  A minute later he was back with his stick horse beteen his legs.  I said "Oh, are you a cowboy?"

"Yes.  Yee-hah, yee-hah.  Horsey.  Neigh.  Neigh, neigh."  There was no expression in his voice whatsoever, lol.