I googled "OCD in Young Children" today...

Well the title might give you an idea of what I'm struggling with here! (And nice 1st blog entry to do in over a month, huh?!) We have a great month or so with Jack and then all of a sudden he's extremely emotional and, well, crazy! I guess 3 year olds are just like that in general sometimes and then you add in the fact that he's super emotional and kind of a control freak and it makes for a mess. And the fact that I'm emotional and a bit of a control freak too doesn't help I'm sure.
Anyway he's hyper obsessive right now about all his characters in movies. When he watches one of his favorites he has to line up the characters perfectly for each scene. And I don't mean Woody needs to stand next to Slink the Dog (which is a tractor with a long trailer here...genius). I mean the snake and shark need to be in their perfect places too. What you say? There is a snake and a shark in Toy Story? Yep for about 30 seconds total. So Jack either has us stop the movie every 30 seconds (not happening) or cries and throws a fit that everyone isn't in their place. So needless to say a few movies have been put in time out for a while here... as well as Jack. I mean this is all funny when you aren't in the throws of it... and yet sometimes it's not. Sometimes it scares a momma.
I have seriously looked at him a few times lately and thought "What is wrong with him? He's psychotic?!" And then of course.... I wonder if he has OCD or something. Which he doesn't, not according to the description but man that kid is OBSESSED about things being just right! It has gotten a little bit better since we've put movies in time out and laid down the law more with it (as in throw a fit about something like this and you get put in your bed) but still it is sometimes scary. I'm sure (ok hope) that it's a combo of his intense temperament and him being just 3.
It's also the time where I need to remind myself about the benefits of him being such an intense and emotional child. For example I get these amazing hugs and I love yous all the time. It's so sweet to drop him off at school and have him run back to be before I leave to give me a big hug and say "I love you mommy" or his latest "You're the sweetest mommy." Or when I pick him up he comes running across the room like he hasn't seen me for days and does the same. And as far as his intensity goes, well he can get caught up in telling his stories and be focused on them on his own for over an hour... it's amazing to see how focused and independent he can be. I'm sure it will serve him well in adulthood... if he makes it there :)
So I'm reminding myself of these things and trying to not freak out about my son's constant freak outs right now. Yeah, we are just 2 peas in a pod aren't we? Actually make that 3 with our drooling happy companion, Joey, who is always entertained by whatever his brother does!

Sleepless in Seattle

Well obviously I'm not in Seattle but still we are quite sleepless in this household. Well at least I am and Joey is too. (So excuse the rantings of a sleep deprived woman here...) Joey's been waking up every 3 hours to eat and sometimes even more frequently. He had been sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch each night but when he got close to 3 months (he'll be 4 months tomorrow) he started waking up more... and then even more 2 weeks ago and has kept it up since. Last night he was up 1.5 hours after going back down at 3am... then up again an hour later. He's been always eating a ton when he wakes up so I'm OK with that, the big boy needs to eat. BUT he's starting to wake up more and I'm just not OK with that! I have flash backs to the days Jack woke up almost every hour after his 1st 4 hour stretch for no apparent reason. But Joey isn't Jack and I need to remind myself of that. He's a million times more mellow and I'm a 100 times less freaked about everything.... then again I'm also 10 times more tired and spent taking care of a baby and a busy bossy intense 3.5 year old at the same time. But hey I keep reminding myself this is the last time I'll be doing this since Joey is our last baby. That and I think he must be teething... he tries to gnaw his fingers off or your fingers off every chance he gets. We go in for his 4 month appt. tomorrow so maybe I'll know more then, but probably not :) since there is no magical answer with some babies.

Anyway I was also going to say there was another reason I thought of Sleepless in Seattle and wanted to blog about it. We had a really hard couple of months with Jack right after his 3rd birthday, then the past 2 months it's been sooo much easier - almost no meltdowns, less bossy, more flexible (which any thing is an improvement in flexibility for him), etc. Well about 1.5 weeks ago (just before he turned 3.5) it flared up again. I swear we now have at least one meltdown a day. And me being so tired I'm having them too -or at least not handling Jack's meltdowns all that well all the time.

Well the other day he HAD to have a certain toy/ character to watch a movie with (an almost identical but smaller replacement wouldn't do) so we looked all over... well 15 minutes later we still didn't find it, were not willing to look any longer and his time to watch the movie before dinner was running out. Dad and I both tried to explain to him that because he was being difficult, not flexible, and not willing to use a replacement toy it was almost time for dinner and there was little time left to watch the movie. Of course he spiraled into a meltdown (he was 1/2 way there) and through the tears and tantrum we hear "I don't wanna be difficult! I don't wanna be difficult!" LOL which later reminded me of a movie scene with Meg Ryan crying saying "I'm difficult, yes I'm difficult..." in relation to why some relationship didn't work. It was done in the same pitiful sad blubbering tone as Jack's "difficult" rant.

So anyway I thought, oh I can do a Sleepless in Seattle post and wrap that into it. Here I am typing it up and realize in my poor sleep deprived state that, well duh, that Meg Ryan scene was from When Harry Met Sally not Sleepless. Sigh... well I'll just use this rambling entry as proof of my mushy brain and post this anyway.