Son, Please Schedule Your Next Weird Phase In Advance

My life has been like a real-life Invasion of the Body Snatchers the past week. If, that is, it was not the body that was snatched and replaced with a clone devoid of emotion, but your son’s inner self was replaced with a cranky gerbil on crack.

I think Caedmon is in the midst of a language/development growth spurt. I’m telling myself that because spurts usually end at some point and things go back to normal. I do not need for this to be the new normal.

Caedmon naps every day. Not always for a long time, and there’s an occasional day where he just won’t sleep, but he missed his nap four days last week. Four. Which means I missed any type of rest/productive time those four days. Not good. The boy just cannot be still. Or quiet. His little brain is staying revved up all the time. Even at bedtime (after no nap) he’s having a hard time winding down and going to sleep. He can’t even sit still to watch his favorite cartoons right now, which is totally not him.

(And if your child gave up naps at 2 1/2, I do not want to hear from you. I am determined he is not giving up naps. However, if your kid is 4 and still napping, please comment. Again and again.)

But yesterday in the grocery store? He started telling me he was tired and wanted to go home. I think it was because he was bored with the frozen foods section. But he is tired. His eyes tell the true tale. And he’s so cranky, I can hardly stand it.

I’ve decided it’s this growth spurt of sorts for a few reasons. 1) My sanity. And 2) He’s said and done so many new/different things within the last week.

Exhibit A: Sunday on the way home from church, he was singing to himself in the car. As much as he likes music, he doesn’t normally sing to himself. And not only was he singing, he was singing the ABC’s, albeit only the last half of the song. But he did it flawlessly, not even turning L-M-N-O-P into some crazy thing nobody’s ever heard of.

Exhibit B: Monday, we saw a school bus while on the way to the store. He loves buses and always points them out. But this time, after he told me he saw the bus, he went on to say, “That’s the biggest bus I ever see.” Not typical language for him.

Exhibit C: The boy’s imagination has been crazy detailed the last week or so. He’s constantly telling me he’s “going to get coffee” and jumps on his ride-on turtle and zooms off. He comes back with some invisible “coffee” in his hand and gives it to me. He’s also brought me snacks, cheeseburgers, fries, and apples in the past week. And don’t think I don’t gobble them right up. There are no calories in those fries and cheeseburgers.

Exhibit D: Caedmon’s mispronunciations have changed in the past week. “Hungry” used to be “Hungee”, and now it’s “Hungwy.” “Chocolate” used to be “Choket” and now it’s “Chockwet.” There are others, I just can’t think of them all right now. But you get my point.

Exhibit E: Just in the past week or so, Caedmon’s become super interested in other people/cars/things and wants to know who they are, where they’re going, and what they’re doing. “Where is that car going?” “What is that man doing?” “Is he a daddy?” “What is that?” “What is it doing?” “What is that noise?” And he’s constantly asking about people we know, out of the blue: “Where’s Nana?” “Where’s Papa Duke?” “What’s Uncle Evan doing?” And details…I can’t just tell him Daddy’s at work. He wants to know if Daddy is at the church, and if he’s in his office or the studio.

I know there are more examples, but as weary as I am right now, I’m lucky to have come up with five.

I realize all of this is normal. And it’s good. I love seeing Caedmon use his imagination and become more and more curious about the world. But it’s all come at once and as overwhelming as it is for me, I can only imagine how crazy it is for him. So I’m trying to have grace and mercy, but those things are not high on my spiritual gifts list. I find it hard to administrate these kinds of things, which is where my strength truly lies.

Hopefully this short little phase is indeed, a short little phase and we’ll be on to something else soon. I think a “sleeping late and taking long naps” phase sounds really good about now.