wonder week

From Monday through to Wednesday? Not so great. Squirt was so obviously not himself. Yes, we'd both had colds, and no, Squirt still isn't totally over his, still coughing (when I prompt him, so cute!) and leaking from all orifices, but that really wasn't all that was plaguing him.

He was playing with his food, refusing to drink, suddenly off tomatoes ("bah!"); he was driving his cars all over the coffee table, pushing them off on purpose - refusing to pick them up himself, crying till I did it, and then start the whole sordid game again; he was frustrated whenever he found a toy upside-down; didn't want his diapers changed; cried in the shower; he was naughty x 2 - playing with the potted plants, not listening to my protests till I reached my 3-warnings-quota and plucked him away from the mess he made, which made him cry and do it all over again - of course; no sleeping at nap time; crying; waking up at night, multiple times, crying, refusing to go back to sleep; crying... The list is longer, but I'm guessing this will do ;-)

I got so tired of it. Only intermittently successfully not showing it. At some stage I pulled back into the kitchen, telling Squirt Mamma had 'gone fishing'. For a bit. In the sink. Or something. Anything to reclaim my nurturing side.

Till the penny dropped. This has happened before; whenever Squirt 'plays up' (baby/toddler-style) for more than 48 hours, it hits me. I've got this book. A book I certainly don't use as a Be All & End All, but one still pretty handy to have lying around. Whenever I think something unusual is up. And I'm always dead-on. Which means, of course, the book is. Really. Or at least, the book is right, too ;-)

It's a book by Frans Plooij & Hetty van de Rijt, and it has been around for centuries. At least. I would translate its title ('Oei, ik groei!') to 'Wow, I'm growing!'. I get that that might be too literal, but it sure ain't worse than its current English title 'The Wonder Weeks'. Which is lame.

But that aside, this book is good! Not because of its patronising tone, so much - jewels like this one: "But Mother doesn't mind that the child is crying, because she knows something amazing is going on in her little one's head!" (not quite literally, but along similar lines) pop up every so often. But all condescendence aside, it's true! As soon as I realise Squirt is taking one of his 'Predictable, Age-Linked Leaps in Mental Development (Characterized By The Three C'S (Crying, Cranky, Clingy), A Change In Perception, And The Development Of New Skills)', all is fine with our little world again! I don't need to read the whole chapter; I'm amazed at Squirt's development on a daily basis! But it puts the whole episode into perspective again.

And the funny thing is, as soon as I've uncovered what's going on, Squirt is back to his happy, funny, cute & cuddly self again! I'm not sure whether that is because I'm so slow - finally grabbing the book when he's worked through the whole mess all on his own - or because I relax once the 'problem' is identified, but we're having fun again! Anyway, since the book is talking in terms of weeks, and Squirt is always pretty much back on track within around 72 hours, we're not doing that badly!

So. Momma put the fishing rod & tackle box away again. Only one leap left in the book, but I'll try my darndest to read through it before the need to go fishing arises again :-D


N.B. The Dutch version talks about 10 distinct leaps, the English version only explains 8. Either Dutch kids are amazingly slow, or we develop beyond everyone else. I think it's the latter. But then, I would ;-)