Wailing Like a Banshee

Oh, the screaming. 


Jaxon has discovered the power of his lungs. 


He has learned he can stop everything with a single, well timed 10 second long shriek. If we're lucky, it's just a single shriek. On most days, though, that first shriek is followed by another, and a third and so on until he gets what he wants or gets tired of it and moves on to another activity.


He does this in the car, when he wants out of his car seat, or just wants to let us all know he's not pleased with being strapped in. 


He does this in church, when we won't hand over the pen, or allow him to dump his cup of water everywhere.


He does it in restaurants, where even hard of hearing old ladies turn to say "My, my, he is excited." 


It's driving us insane. 


I have noticed that he does it more when his siblings are around. For example, for The Great Cloth Diaper Change the other day, I was gone from home for about 6 hours. I think Jaxon screamed maybe 4 times the entire time, and each time, it was a single shriek, not the incessant screaming that drives everyone within a 2 mile radius crazy. Right now, he and I are home alone and have been for 2 hours and he hasn't screamed once. So I'm kind of thinking he does it to make sure he is the center of attention, which is hilarious because if you happen to know our family, you know that Jaxon definitely does not suffer from a lack of attention.

Anyone have any ideas for how to discourage this type of behavior? Our current methods are NOT working. 

Manic Mommy Monday

I've been meaning to link up to the Manic Mommy Monday since it began a few weeks ago. However, I've been completely unmotivated to blog, having way too much stuff to do around the house. Every time I started to write, my posts were just rambling...but today I figured it's a Manic Mommy Monday, doesn't that somehow call for a rambling post?


So here you go:


Jaxon looks as if I've been abusing him. I had forgotten how accident prone newly walking toddlers are. The fact that Jaxon thinks he can run, and climb, and do everything his 7 year old brother can, does not help. I promise I watch him, and I'm usually right beside him, but despite my best efforts, he falls down. Since his skin is so white it is practically transparent, every single little bruise and bump shows. Right now his legs sport scrapes from the dog, a bug bite or two, and multiple small bruises from falling down and bumping into things. He also has not one, but two bloody lips from falling down (once inside, once off his bike outside).  Thankfully, he heals quickly...but then he falls down again. It's a vicious cycle.


However, in an act of mommy awesomeness, I saved him from falling off the bed and bumping his head and body...I caught him about 8 inches from the floor. Even more impressive? It was the middle of the night...and I was sound asleep and somehow woke up as I was catching him. Score one for mommy instinct. Actually, mark two points down for that, because that's the second time I've caught him right before he hit the floor. I'm happy to say that in 13 months of co-sleeping, he's never fallen out of the bed. Of course, now that I've said that...


We now have a whole bunch of chickens. The kids love them. There are 24 that will lay eggs - I'm so ready for fresh eggs! The rest of the chickens will become food. We haven't let the kids named the doomed chickens and surprisingly, they are okay with knowing that we will be eating those chickens in a couple of months. 


Jason has been getting up very early to feed the animals and let the dog out (she's outside in a pen, but when we're up, we let her have the run of the entire yard). It's great that he's been able to adjust to farm life and waking up early so easily. What's not great (for me, anyway) is that Jaxon thinks that as soon as Daddy goes outside at 6:45, he needs to be going as well. Each day last week, Jaxon got up with Jason, went outside before 7, was filthy by 8, and in the end went through at least 4 outfits each day, since I can't stand for him to nurse on top of me or be laid in his bed when he's filthy. We've discovered that he loves to dig in the dirt. ALL BOY. He's already learned that he needs to take his shoes off when he comes in from being outside and he knows that his playing outside shoes are kept in the laundry room. It took me weeks to teach the other kids that, lol.  


April is Parkinson's Awareness Month. Five million people around the world live with Parkinson's disease every day, so I'm in good company. While teaching division and changing diapers dominates more of my time than thinking about a cure for Parkinson's does, the constant pain in my legs reminds me that my body is not working the way a normal 34 year old body should be. So I am grateful for organizations like The Michael J Fox Foundation and the National Parkinson's Foundation that work relentlessly for a cure. If you want to help, click on one of those links. If you have Parkinson's and want to help, click here for information on how to join the 23andme Parkinson's Research Community.