Ranger's Clock

  Pavlov's Ranger's Clock

When I took possession of my dad's mantle clock, I was fondly remembering the chimes playing in all the homes we'd lived in...memories where I took comfort in hearing the ding dong ding dong ringing through the house.

Ranger loves LOVES clocks (when we Skype with his grandma he wants to see her coo-coo clock!), so I put it first on Ranger's dresser. But then as we were getting him ready for bed that first night, I had the *brilliant* idea of winding the clock. I thought there was an on off switch for the chimes...but didn't find it that night. So I took it from Ranger's room and put it in ours.

We were laying in bed hoping Ranger was going to stay down and the chimes rang the 45 minute mark. I said to E, is that going to bother you? And he said, well it's an hourly thing I can probably ignore it.

And I chuckled (ok, I might have laughed so hard it took me a while to be able to reply) and said, it goes off every 15 minutes. EVERY FIFTEEN!!

I laughed about this for a while and then talked about where we could put the clock (E's suggestion was storage). Then Ranger came running into our room and crawled up on the bed. The top of the hour chimed and I couldn't help but say ding dong ding dong along with the chimes...which got Ranger started on an adorable DiDog DiDog that made us all laugh.

But did not make us forget whose bed time it was. I got Ranger back in his bed and grabbed the feather blanket.

Back in our room I carefully wrapped the clock in the feather bed and tucked it in our closet.

Ding dong ding dong...

It was faint, maybe E didn't hear it. But his headphones were in.

Ding dong ding dong. Maybe it wasn't as faint as I thought. E was watching a show...but knowing it would bother him meant it bothered me.

Then again, having it tucked in the closet made it sound like the clock of my childhood- the one I could hear faintly through the house late at night.

E heard it the next time. Ding dong ding dong... Can't you turn it off? I don't know... I wound it and think it has to wind down. Maybe....

The blanket wrapped clock was then moved to the hallway closet by to the front door. From there we couldn't even hear the faintest ding. Unless you stood by the door.

Flash forward a few months, and I've figured out how to turn the chimes on and off.  I turn them on during the day and the fifteen minute interval chimes remind me to ask Ranger if he needs to pee or poop in the toilet. His answer is always no, even if he is at that moment dirtying his diaper.

After a few days of this, he is now turning to me when he hears the chimes and saying, "no pee inna toy-let, mommy."

I'd be more pleased if this actually meant he didn't need to hop on the toilet, but I'll take what I can get as a step towards a diaper free toddler. Poor kid will likely have to run to the toilet when he's older and hears the distinct chimes of a Westminster Mantle clock...