Roomtime for Nick

Nick has been happy to play in his playpen/bed every day for "independent playtime." Because he was happy in there, I was in no hurry to change it to give him "roomtime." In the Babywise parenting group that I'm part of, most of the toddlers change to roomtime around 18 months old. Nick is almost 22 months old.

For the last week, he has been doing his frustration scream more often in independent playtime. I decided it was time to try roomtime. I put his playpen mattress on the floor, moved his playpen over, put Pooh on the mattress along with a set of toys, and turned on music for him. He understood immediately and helped me place the toys he wanted on the mattress (cars). I put up a baby gate across his doorway, closed his door, and said, "Have fun!"

He cried hard for about ten seconds. Then he got busy playing. I didn't hear one unhappy sound for the rest of the hour. When I came in and helped him clean up, I noticed he had used his Fisher-Price Little People airport ramp for the Hot Wheel cars. All signs pointed to him being ready for roomtime.

Today there was one interesting glitch. After playing for a while, he experimented with opening the door and standing there talking. At first he said, "Hi!" I was within eyesight, but when I looked up, he wasn't looking at me, just out of the room in general. He babbled for a while. (Although I am starting to understand more of it and I think most of them are actual words. I realized today he can say "Piglet", "push", and "button" on top of his other vocabulary. He also says a word that I am almost positive means music, but it doesn't sound anything like the actual word.) Then he pushed over the baby gate. He cried. He looked a little frightened, so after I fixed the baby gate I went in to comfort him. I watched him play for a while. It is amazing just watching the learning process take place. He tried to do what I was doing to push the button for a new song on his music box. Nothing happened with his forefinger. Quickly he realized his thumb worked better. He tried the thumb on either hand. Now he is an expert.

Tomorrow if he pushes over the gate I will probably set it back up, tell him to keep playing for independent playtime, and close the door. I think it will work. This transition is working so much better than the more abrupt transitions I used to make with little Xander.

The reason I type up this experience in so much detail is so I can remember what we did next time a parent poses a question about it in the Babywise group. :)