Sleep Training Cont.

Ethan continues doing well putting himself to sleep for naps and bedtime. He is still waking one to two times in the night but is fine with me coming into his room and just "tucking" him back in. Last night he woke up crying with very itchy bug bites and I decided to just let him sleep with us. Probably a bad idea. We will see how tonight goes. I was just too tired to sit by his bed and talk him back to sleep after putting cream on his bites. The following is the commentary my dad e-mailed me from my first blog on the topic:

"Your physical (and joyful) presence in the final (successful) training was essential for two reason. 1) you stay relationally connected with him which is powerfully calming in itself and enables him to "remain himself" even when he feels sad or angry. Because the "bigger brain" he is lovingly attached to (yours) is right there and connected with him, he doesn't lose track of his true self (and end up in a melt-down.) That true self was created in your presence and was molded by what he saw in your (hundreds and hundreds) of reactions to him from day one. So he doesn't "lose himself" as easily when you're there. 2) As you stay calm, loving and firm in your directions to him while also synchronizing with his emotions you are literally "walking him out" of his distressed state to one that matches your feelings of peaceful, loving and secure connection. That's what we call "joy" in our shorthand. And you are helping him travel his own "return to joy" path in this new context of sleeping alone. There is detailed brain science (physiology) behind all this that has been unpacked over the last 10 years. The psychology research which applied attachment theory to "real life" goes back a little farther. What's exciting is the growing understanding of how the two fields relate to each other."

Now I'm trying the same "stay connected and happy" techniques to training Ethan to not crawl all over me and fuss while I'm talking on the phone and working on the computer! That will be my next "parent and child in training" blog.

On another topic....last night Stephanie's parents took us out for sushi in Caesarea. It's our favorite sushi joint in Israel. Not uncommon in Israel, this nice restaurant is attached to a gas station. It's a bit shocking to walk into a nicely decorated sit down restaurant right next to a stop and shop gas station. Just another example of Israeli's quirkiness! Anyway, we had such a nice time with them. It's so neat to meet our friends' families as this all gives us a better picture of "where we came from." I've always been fascinated by the unique "culture" of each family. And speaking of culture, I've had a growing realization that anthropology is an area of study that I have significant interest in. I don't know why I hadn't pursued this in my college years since I've always known I LOVE people. Now, my years living overseas is increasing that desire to study different people groups.

For right now, the topic of study at hand... HEBREW! I'm now frequently getting the line, "You've lived here for 2 years and you still don't speak Hebrew." Yes, I'm feeling ashamed of my pitiful efforts and I'm kicking into high gear now with the help of Rosetta Stone! The straw that broke this camel's back was the HUGE misunderstanding I had with the local grocer about ordering Thanksgiving turkeys. To make a long story short, she mixed up Tuesday and Thursday, ordered the birds for the wrong day, sold one bird when I didn't retrieve it, and then couldn't find another bird in all of Israel! I need to learn Hebrew. period.