James' Adjustment

I wrote a while back on a few things relating to James’ adjustment. Looking back at those posts, I thought I’d give an update, as James has changed so much in the 3+ months he’s been home!

Bedtime was a little bit of a struggle for us with James, more so than for the other kids following their homecoming. He was very scared to be away from us for quite some time, and wouldn’t stay in his bed if we weren’t in the room with him. He would either come running out after us, or climb in with Elijah, keeping him up at night. So we moved his bed into our room for several weeks. This helped us still be able to sleep in our own beds (saving our backs!), but he was still comforted being near us. We stayed in the room with him until he fell asleep. We stayed in the room with him until he stopped waking up and needing comfort in the night, when we’d quietly sneak out after he fell asleep. After a while, we would even try to sneak out before he was completely asleep, and he was OK with it.

The week before daycare, we decided to move James’ bed back into his bedroom that he shares with Elijah. The transition went very smoothly. He was fine going to bed in the same room as Elijah – although we did have Elijah switch to sleeping at the other end of his bed, so James could see him from his bed. It’s still working out very well.

Naptime is still a struggle, though, since James is our only kid (usually) that takes an afternoon nap. Since it’s only on the weekends, it’s not a huge deal, but James does NOT like going to bed in his room by himself for naptime! Just this past weekend, I’ve gotten him to stay in his bed by himself, by leaving the door open, while I was working on laundry or other tasks upstairs. The good thing is that he’s taking 1½- to 2-hour naps on the weekends because he’s so tired from being busy all week!

Here’s a cute picture I couldn’t resist taking one night the first week he was back in his room. I checked on the boys each night when I went to bed to make sure they were in their own beds. James had fallen out, and was sound asleep on the floor next to his bed. I purposely turned his toddler bed backwards in the corner of the room so that there’d be less likelihood of him falling out. He still found the opening! LOVE that he still sleeps like an infant with his knees pulled up under him and his butt up in the air!

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James’ tantrums have pretty well ceased. Now, not entirely, but the massive ones he was having after we came home and started disciplining, have gone away. We really only have the usual 2-year-old tantrums, when he doesn’t get his way and throws himself down on the floor crying. They don’t last long, though, which is nice. We can usually distract him, or when we ignore them and don’t give in, he gives up pretty quickly.

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James’ vocabulary is coming along quite nicely. Don’t get me wrong, he still goes into the long stories at times, and talks your ear off in Creole/toddler gibberish. But he’s saying more and more phrases, and mixing English words into his long ramblings as well. His teachers at daycare are also understanding him more and more each week. He’s still repeating our every word, and now starting to repeat 2-3 word phrases instead of just the last word we say. It’s fun to hear his language skills improving so quickly!