Minor Adjustments

Ikaika has not been acting like himself.  The most noticeable difference is a fear of people.  Usually, he is Mr Charm - batting those baby blues and saying something precocious without prompt - but since we've gotten to Seattle he has been reserved.  It took him several days to warm up to my sister.  He refused to even walk through my friend's front door.  Last night, one of my mother's vball players tried to give him a ball and he fell to the floor, crying "NO! NO!" in the fetal position.

I know these behaviors are part of his adjustment process.  Even though I know we are only here for three weeks, in Ikaika's world we might as well be here forever.  I've been trying to help him through this by keeping something that resembles a schedule and not fighting his attachment to me.  My first reaction is to foster his independence by making him "cry it out" or telling him to "suck it up".  There is a nagging little voice telling me that he will revert into some snivelling spoiled brat if I entertain his neurosis.  But I also know that these behaviors are both normal and healthy.  They are a manifestation of his insecurities created by the dramatic change in his surroundings.  With that in mind, it's probably best to just let him sleep with me at night if that makes him feel secure. 

Now that we have been here a few days, I'm already seeing improvement in his eating and toilet training hasn't been affected at all.  I'm going to work for the next few days on getting back to regular sleeping expectations (that he fall asleep by himself) and hopefully socialization will follow.