(no subject)

[liralen]

Jet surprised the heck out of John and I tonight. I'd gotten a book called Overcoming Repetitive Motion Injuries the Rossiter Way, and it basically is a book of stretches that need the help of a friend. A lot of it involves the helper using their feet to apply as much pressure as the person doing the stretches needs on certain points. So John was helping me out with them when Jet tackled him yelling, "No! No! Go away!!" and crying pretty fiercely. We figure Jet thought John was hurting me and was defending me.

That nearly made me cry. Bitty gnat boy tackling great big guy so fiercely in my defense is NOT something I would have thought would happen.

We stopped. We all got hugs, and Jet got reassured and while he pushed John away a few times, eventually, he hugged John, too. John went to sleep, and I took care of Jet until he calmed down enough to do the usual going to sleep routine. John and I will have to do this when Jet's napping tomorrow or something. It's obviously upsetting him. Poor toddler.

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Oh, DEAR! So sweet of Jet to defend you -- and at the same time, how frightening to imagine how scared he must have been!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It was! Both!

I *tried* to get across to him that he did the right thing. That he should do exactly what he did when he's that afraid or that those are the things that trigger him. That he was a very brave little guy.

He needed a lot of cuddling, which I didn't mind.

I don't know how much of what I *wanted* to get across actually got across, but so it is.

[archangelbeth]

Maybe you could try explaining to him what the stretches are, and mommy needs them, etc.? Are there any he could "help you do"? It might get him more comfortable with the concept or positions?

(And his defense probably also shows, paradoxically, that he's comfortable with John? I.e., he feels he has enough control over the situation to try to resolve it? I'm not explaining it well, drat.)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I think you got it, though, in some sense. That Jet is self-confident enough that he was willing to do what he felt he had to do to resolve the problem. I was really amazed by that. I think some of it was that he was comfortable enough with John to tell him his mind, to say what he really felt. THAT was very important, I think.

So far as trying to convince him that the stretches are okay, both John and I are leaving it for the moment and doing them when Jet's napping or asleep. They are *very* vulnerable positions, when I think about it, and there is actually some pain involved, because it's working through some bad tension areas that I've been holding for a while.

It's also a lot easier on John to just do it without having to resolve all the other stuff, as he feels pretty bad about being seen as an 'attacker' or something. So we've left it for now.

But, my, the things one runs across when one has kids...

[archangelbeth]

*nod* Strewth. Just wait for the "what was THAT about??" moments -- when something provokes wails for no logical reason... O;>