Monday, March 2, 2009

Some Jasmine Stories

So, I wanted to write down and share a couple of Jasmine stories I thought were interesting and/or great. Jasmine is such a bright and intelligent child - and I don't just say this because she is my child - I am just amazed at her cognitive reasoning and how observant she is. We can't get away with anything.
This past Sunday, since we began a new month, it was time to begin teaching the kids a new song in Primary. The song for this month is called My Eternal Family. It is a cute little song that talks about being a builder in your family and serving others. There is a line that says, "And I will do the Best that I can to serve them lovingly." As I was teaching that line to the kids and I had pictures on the board to help them remember, Jasmine bounced up out of her chair and threw her arms around my legs and said, "This is what lovingly looks like!" and then she let go and turned to the whole Primary and exclaimed, "That is what lovingly looks like OK?" And I instantly had tears spring to my eyes knowing that whatever things I feel sometimes my daughter isn't learning because of my defects as a mother, she at least knows what loving looks like. I was so touched by that and it took all I had to compose myself and keep going - it is so rare I cry like that so it was tough to stop! I also just wanted to scoop her into my arms and kiss her little face until I was exhausted.
The second story is just something interesting we have found out about our daughter. She is a sleepwalker. This is a bit worrisome because we wouldn't want her walking out of her room in the middle of the night and falling down the stairs because she is asleep. The first time we caught her sleepwalking was in her old room. She was already sleeping in the toddler bed (the crib my dad made for her converts) and she cried out in the middle of the night so Lorne got up to check on her and found her standing in front of her closet and realized after a quick assessment that she was indeed asleep.
The second time (this confirmed it) was this past Sunday night. Lorne and I were laying in bed talking when we heard a terrified scream coming from Jasmine's room. Of course we both jumped up and ran to her room to see what was wrong. My fear was that she had fallen out of the bed and gotten hurt - since she has only been in her big girl bed for a few weeks. As I rushed into the room and turned on the light I was surprised to find her across the room with her hands outstretched touching the window and pretty upset. I picked her up and held her close and soothed her and daddy was there too soothing her. Well, we put her back into bed and immediately she settled down and was fast asleep and had been the whole time. She also had no recollection of the incident in the morning when we tried to ask her if anything had happened the night before.
I do find this interesting because I know my mom used to sleepwalk when she was younger and also Lorne says he did when he was a boy too. The funny thing is that I am a sleep talker and Jasmine has that too - we have heard her talking before and gone in to check and she has been fast asleep. How funny that our girl has these funny sleep habits!

4 comments:

The Tones of the Zarcone's said...

Actually, I believe that Jasmine is suffering from Night Terrors vs sleepwalking (which is similiar to sleepwalking, just more dramatic). Night terrors are usually related to a child being sleep-deprived (not to say Jasmine is, but that is what most sources would say) or a developmental leap (I remember waking up to charlie horses as a kid, i.e., growing pains).

The best thing to do (which will seem to go against your natural instinct of parenting) is to go in and check on your Jassy, but don't try to soothe or even say her name. Also, don't try and wake her. She may think you are trying to attack her (since she isn't exactly awake as you guys saw). Just stand by and make sure she doesn't hurt herself!

We learned about this in our child development courses when I got my license. Hope it helps!

love you.

me

Susan said...

I sleepwalked until I was a teenager and then suddenly I didn't do it any longer.

Erin said...

loved your comment about the primary lesson.

re: sleepwalking, i have heard of friends who either a) put the babyproofing handle cover on the inside of the child's door or b) simply put a lock on the child's door--from the outside--to prevent possible issues with the child going throughout the house or worse, outside.

it was great to see you yesterday--sorry it was so quick. you look great.

Unknown said...

Oh yeah - definitely night terrors!
I bet she hears the sounds of helicopters whumping and starts to sweat like she's crawling through the jungles back in the Mekong Delta.
Then she starts to imagine that Charlie is after her, probably in one of those tunnels her company used to have to clear.
It's when she imagines those dang VC grab her she lets out the scream...
Ok, maybe that's just me!
;-)