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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 12:07pm | IP Logged
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I just blogged about my morning scare. This is when I need some support for having just one very active child. How do you regroup and get the energy? Hints to getting him to be safe when he's alone?
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Anne McD
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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Oh, Jen, I feel for you!  My oldest boy is like that! When he was nine months old, I left him in his exersaucer to literally run upstairs to get something and come back. When I got upstairs I heard a thud, but couldn't understand what it could be, since he couldn't get out! Sure enough, he was sitting on the floor next to it. And it hasn't stopped since. He gave up naps once we put him in a big boy bed, b/c he didn't have bars confining him to a small space. This was at 20 months. He was the most active baby in utero, and hasn't stopped since!  The only advice I can give you is to keep him within arms reach, or strapped into something so tightly, he can't get out. But then again, my little Houdini got out of everything. The only light at the end of the tunnel is the one I'm looking for. Apparently, my husband was just like this when little, but mellowed out at age nine.
I'm not sure if I can make it four more years . . . 
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Anne
Wife to Jon
Mommy to Alex 9
James 8
Katie 6
William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
and baby on the way! 10/14
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Betsy
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+JMJ+
Jenn,
If I was a better writer I would have written a book about all of the things my first two boys have done. They are now 6&5 and things have gotten a tiny bit better. Although last week we moved in to a new home and while I was taking a shower....I heard the blood curdling screams of my Mother, who came to help me unpack. I run out to the living room to see my boys on the roof of my garage getting the toys that they had thrown out!!!
The hardest thing I find about having kids like this is other people don't understand. I have finally come to have greater confidence about who I am and how I mother and most of all who my boys are. However, people still look down on me and my family as if we are just horrible parents with the most rotten children in the world. I could write another book about the meanest things people have ever said to a Mother! So, I have found that there are very few people that I can go to talk about my struggles and issues with my boys.
I am glad that you have come here....I hope that I can reassure you about life and help in some small way. PM any time when you want to hear a story to top yours! 
Betsy
P.S. Both of these two sons at different times have stuck knives in to eclectic outlet and shocked themselves. Honestly, before this happened I had thought that it was a old wife’s tale that you could shock your self this way!
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Ruth
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 12:32pm | IP Logged
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My then 4 year old son peed in a floor outlet and actually got zapped  I'm hoping he's not infertile It will get easier. Thank God for their guardian angels 
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Ruth
mom to 7 miracles
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Betsy
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 12:33pm | IP Logged
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P.P.S. As for "child proofing an area" I don't think it's possible. We keep every room as simple as possible, bolt every thing down and try to out think them....but they always find something and do something that no one could have ever though of!
Oh, wait, that probably wasn't what you wanted to hear...never mind....
Betsy
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Maryan
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 2:21pm | IP Logged
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Betsy wrote:
P.P.S. As for "child proofing an area" I don't think it's possible. We keep every room as simple as possible, bolt every thing down and try to out think them....but they always find something and do something that no one could have ever though of!
Oh, wait, that probably wasn't what you wanted to hear...never mind....
Betsy |
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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humanaevitae
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Jenn, you are right to think that personality sometimes is more of a challenge than more numbers. I'm still surprised my oldest is still alive! The first time he got out of his crib he managed to get outside (Dh must not have shut the door tightly before leaving for work). I finally found him walking around the apartment parking lot with a set of keys in his hand looking for the 'eep!
He was also the one at barely 2 who got out the electric frypan and the cord which had been placed in a seperate high drawer. I came upon him squirting water on it with a squirt bottle, watching the steam rise up!
It is so hard to not have a sibling's extra eyes watching our little whirlwinds as you really don't get a break. Do the best you can to babyproof and watch him well but at some point I think one needs to remember that God is in control and if he wants the child to stay alive, he will. Although you can count on those gray hairs!
Not much advice here, just sympathy!
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Nicole-Zane 10, Elizabeth 7, Xavier 4, and John Patrick 2
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Cay Gibson
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Oh, Jenn, my mother just asked me a couple of days ago, "You only have one god-son, right?" (Yes, and six god-daughters).
"Good thing. He took another trip to the emergency room yesterday."
And here's what one of my god-daughters told my cousin in the ER:
”Don’t worry Mom, he’ll be ok…he’s just a typical boy…active and wild.”
It's common. It's typical. Somehow they survive childhood. I've raised two.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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doris
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 4:29pm | IP Logged
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Gosh, what an awful fright!
I don't think it's got to do with being an 'only' though -- just a boy. We've been to Casualty (=ER) FIVE times with ds, once with the two girls. Same story with my brother. The latest incident involved ds opening all the drawers of our ancient, overstuffed filing cabinet and the whole thing toppling over -- heavy, sharp metal drawers narrowly missing his head.
So lots of sympathy. I do think it gets easier as they get bigger and are more open to reason, and have some memory!
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PDyer
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 4:52pm | IP Logged
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Back when my son was 2.5 I left him in his room with the door open and went back to our room to make the bed. The rooms were just down an hallway from each other. Within seconds he had pulled a drawer out of his dresser and whacked himself in the middle of his forehead with the drawer slide. I heard the WHACK, a looooong almost silent inhale, and then the SCREAM. That was the first time the squad was called to our house...
How did I regroup? I hate to say it, but I used the TV. We showered together. He was really pretty mellow, as kids go, though. My daughter, on the other hand, was the child who almost got a knife in an electrical outlet when I was standing right next to her...
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Patty
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Maryan
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 5:05pm | IP Logged
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Oh Jenn,
I forgot, I did have a suggestion: for quiet time or any other time when I need the boys to stay still, we listen to a book on tape. It's made a world of difference. Does your ds like to listen to books on tape?
That's the only thing that keeps Bobby from starting to.. try to jump as far as he can from the bed to the floor, see if he can reach the ceiling fan by stacking all his clothes bins, or practice his curve ball with all the stuffed animals at his brother in his crib... Also I give Bobby a puzzle that he hasn't done for awhile to occupy his hands while he's listening to the story. JP doesn't need it.
And...all the outlets have plugs in them (but that's because of my one brother...another story, another time!)
For books on CD, we've been compiling a library from that place in Charlottesville...Great Hall productions, I think is the name. I'm sure if you googled it would come up.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 5:11pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, everyone. I thought we had plugs on all the outlets, as I'm terrified of the electrocution aspect, but I seemed to either miss or forget to return the plugs on these. And these outlets are turned on and off by a light switch, and I think it was off. Another reason to thank God.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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SeaStar
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I have a wild man, too. Broken arm before he was two- a nonsleeper, the whole thing. I have to second the books on tape suggestion. My ds will sit still for those.
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Cindy Mac
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 6:01pm | IP Logged
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Ruth -
My brother did the pee in a light socket thing when he was young, and he has 2 kids now - there's still hope for your boy! 
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Cindy - wife to Chris, mommy to my 4 sons!
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Ruth
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 7:13pm | IP Logged
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Cindy Mac wrote:
Ruth -
My brother did the pee in a light socket thing when he was young, and he has 2 kids now - there's still hope for your boy! |
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Boys are unbelievable
Loveliness of boys, anyone?
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Ruth
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Essy
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| Posted: Feb 08 2007 at 7:26pm | IP Logged
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Oh another wonderful thread. I had been wondering if my child was 'unique'. I'm constantly on high alert with him too...it is so draining. I've already spent three weeks in the hospital with him recently for swallowing some magnets off the fridge...got into my dad's pills and had them (a total of seven) in his mouth shortly after that episode. Yes...his guardian angel certainly works over time. Someone mentioned no sleeping...is that a common denominator here too? He does still take a nap...but I have to lie with him to get him to go down...but then we wakes up several times during the night still.
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