A little (man's) space
When we moved into our house-cum-reno
project, Carolina
and I earmarked the smallest bedroom as our child-in-theory’s
first room. It
didn’t require much imagination, being the smallest of the
four and decorated
with a pirate ship frieze around the walls to amuse its
previous little
occupant.
This week, roughly 30 months after our arrival and more than seven months after Jasper joined us, his first ever bedroom was ready for occupation. With a slight precursor of what it’s going to be like packing our precious son off to college one day, we decorated the walls, moved in the crib and prepared for his reaction to the change.
Babies, we read, don’t much appreciate change. They like their world to be consistent, a solid base from which to experiment. (The little man’s latest party trick is to touch his index finger to anybody else’s, like ET. But he’s yet to say “Ouch”, or “JD phone home”. Or anything else more sophisticated than “Daa daa daa daa daa!”, for that matter.)
Carolina was slightly wistful to have him sleeping out of our room for the first time, and we thought he would pick up on that, too.
Either our son has the emotional sensitivity of a Yule log, or he has simply had a growth spurt and needs time to sleep it off. In any case, we had an uneventful night, naptimes have been a breeze (thanks to the new blackout curtains) and JD seems completely unfazed by his new environment.
The best piece of advice we ever received about parenting was at our pre-natal course. We were told not to lower our voices or make an effort to keep the environment quiet when Jasper sleeps, otherwise he could become ultra-sensitive to sudden noises and sleep badly. Having followed that advice, it’s now possible to continue our work on the house while he naps.
Just as well, because when he’s awake only one of us can be working. Consequently, jobs we earmarked for two days take five or more. Things are gradually taking shape, despite the best efforts of our natural laziness and Jasper’s interventions: now, if only we could find a reliable plumber! Sleep well.
