rubenpants.com - a journey…

I put a wailing child down for the night last night. The lad’s had this clingy “mommyitis” thing going lately, and I’m therefore the one who puts him to bed, because if Mommy did it, he’d sob uncontrollably until she finally broke down, retrieved him, and rocked him down. When I do it, he lets out a few half-hearted cries, then rolls over and conks out. At its worst, he’ll cry for a few minutes and then give up.

Five minutes pass. Then ten. He wasn’t giving up. My wife resolutely stated that she would NOT rescue him this time.

That lasted another three minutes or so.

María José called me to the room. “He was at the door,” she noted with concern. Apparently, he’d sprung himself from the crib. “He must have fallen out,” she told me.

I checked the crib. The guardrail was still in the “up” position. The mattress was on its lowest possible setting. Even for a toddler Rubén’s size, one does not simply “fall” out. Now, toddlers learn to climb out of their cribs all the time. No big deal. But for this toddler, this extremely cautious child with motor planning challenges and very low muscle tone, it is a big deal. It’s downright impressive.

My wife told me how frightened my son seemed when she discovered him, and I’m sure it’s true. But part of me was just delighted. Not only was he challenging himself physically, he showed courage and initiative by escaping the confines of the crib, as if to say, “Well, guys, if you’re not coming to get me, then I’m coming to you!”

He did something similar in Sonoma last week. As there was no crib at Lynn’s place, we bedded him down in a normal bed. Even though there were no physical constraints, he always waited patiently for us to come get him in the morning. And then one day, I heard babbling outside and decided it was time to get him up. Imagine my surprise to discover that the babbling was not coming from his room, but from downstairs. He’d made the trek all the way down the stairs solo, before we were even up. Interesting times…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 at 11:29 am and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.