To Nap or Not to Nap.

Jackson gave up taking naps several months ago.  On those random days when he did go down for a nap, he would have a lot of trouble going to sleep that night.  A three year old requires around 12 hours of sleep and considering bedtime is 8pm and he sleeps until 8am, this would explain why he threw his nap out the window. 

After nights of battles to “stay in bed” and seeing him struggle to actually fall asleep, Aaron and I became okay with the fact of Jackson not taking a nap.  We tried to make him have quiet time while Garrett napped.  However, quiet time for Garrett’s 3-4 hour naps, is somewhat impossible…..so quiet time then led to quiet activities….

Since returning from Florida, Jackson randomly started taking naps again.  Our fast day back home, I laid Garrett down for his nap and then said, “Okay Jackson, it’s nap time!  Go hop in your bed!”  I was pretty much kidding, however that’s just what Jackson did on that day and everyday that has followed.  I don’t know what the deal is.  I don’t know if he missed his bed while we were gone.  I don’t know if realized he was the only kid not napping while we were in Florida.  I don’t know! 

Since he is back taking a nap, the bedtime sleep issues are back as well.  Some nights I am a broken record - “Get back in bed…..get back in bed….get back in bed….” and some nights I laugh at the conversations he is having with himself. 

Tonight he got up to tell me he was going to shut his door so that he couldn’t hear Garrett being silly.  However……

 

….Garrett was passed out!  I don’t mind if his door is opened or closed, but I guess he just needed an excuse so I wouldn’t suspect anything…..you know…..suspect that he is having a mini-concert in his room.  Even though his door was closed, I could hear him singing “I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor…. we can go slow or make it go faster…down through the woods and out to the pasture….long as I'm with you it really don't matter…”  I am sure he was either standing on his bed or standing on his rug pretending it was a stage. 

I just ignored him because I don’t want him to realize his door isn’t sound proof until much later in life! ;)

A little while later he opened his door (I’m sure it was only to let his audience exit the concert)  He was quiet for awhile, but I heard something.  I took a peek around the corner and saw this -

I thought I was being sneaky, however I forgot about the bright flash on my camera and he busted me…..only he viewed it as “I busted him!”  He quickly looked up and said, “Mommy, I’m just reading a little bit, okay?  Just a little bit.” Haha….Look at all the books he has piled up on his bed.  

To sum things up, Jackson is taking naps again, yet having trouble going to bed at night most nights.  What’s a mom to do?  It’s kind of a no win situation.  I think I will let him be the judge of this one…. (without telling him he is the judge of course!)

He may be our 2nd, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Last night I put Garrett down to sleep in his crib. Like always, he went down wide awake and without a battle. Garrett is and always has been a great sleeper. This morning I woke up to Jackson at my bedside and the sound of Garrett coming from across the living room, who was standing up in his crib smiling saying “Mama! Mama!” He is always happy when he wakes up. He has always trusted that Aaron or I will come and get him. Sometimes when we think he is sleeping longer than normal, we will sneak into his room to check on him and find him peacefully laying in his crib wide awake.

Today I put Garrett down for his afternoon nap. He took his normal LONG nap which I am always extremely grateful for. Jackson and I were in the living room and we heard Garrett make a noise, so we knew he was awake. Jackson walked to Garrett’s closed door and asked me if it was okay to go in. I said yes. Jackson walked into Garrett’s room and in less than 2 seconds Garrett started screaming. In my mind, I didn’t know what to think. What happened? Jackson didn’t have enough time to get to Garrett and hurt him? What is going on?

I immediately run into Garrett’s room and see Garrett on the floor on his hands and knees. It took .02 seconds for everything to register…….What did Jackson do to him?….Did the door knock him over when Jackson walked in?…..WAIT….GARRETT IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN HIS CRIB!!!!….OH MY GOSH! HE CLIMBED & FELL OUT OF HIS CRIB!

Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, but at the moment, he cried. However, something about after that moment, Garrett had changed. He was so hyper, happy, him and Jackson were getting along great, etc. It was literally like he was proud of himself for his accomplishment of climbing out of his crib.

As silly as it sounds, our options sounded crazy to me.

Option A – Convert his bed into a toddler bed. {Are you kidding me? He will only be 18 months on Monday. He can’t be in a toddler bed yet! He will never stay in his bed and when he does go to sleep, he will roll out. Our house is baby proof, but a 18 month old roaming around the house in the middle of the night doesn’t sound 100% safe to me}

Option B – Keep him in his crib and see if he does it again. {He won’t do it again. That had to have given him a good scare. Wait! Given our FEARLESS child a good scare? How will I explain this to his doctor? “Well Doctor, he fell out of his crib yesterday and didn’t break anything, so we put him back in his crib. Now that he broke his neck I will convert it to a toddler bed.”}

Aaron and I decided on option A. Tonight after dinner, we got everything ready to convert his crib. I really wanted too SEE Garrett climb out, but before deciding to convert the crib I knew that asking him to show me how to climb out would only be practice time and encouragement for him. However, now that we were about to convert it, I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

I put Garrett in his crib. He tried to get out by pulling up on the side of the crib and lifting his leg over the front, but he wasn’t able to do it. We then left the room, stood where the hallway meets the living room where we were able to run in if he started climb out, and waited to see action. He kept trying and trying, while I started wondering how in the world he got out earlier. Then I noticed he was wearing thick cargo shorts, something he normally would not sleep in. I pulled his shorts off and he started to climb right out. I grabbed him as he was straddling the top on his crib like a horse.

This gave us 2 options – convert the crib to a toddler bed or make him sleep in bulky pants every night. haha. We converted the bed.

After converting the bed, I looked at Aaron and said “This isn’t going to be easy, but we don’t really have a choice.” Aaron looked at me, laughed, and said “I remember you saying that when we found out you were pregnant and Jackson was only 9 months old!!” Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!

Now some pictures….lots of pictures!!! I have started using Windows Live Writer which makes uploading pictures so much easier, which results in happy Grandparents. :) (FYI – My camera lens is messed up and I have to have it repaired. I apologize for the quality of these pictures…..so, let’s just focus on the quantity!

This is tonight when we “gave him permission” to climb out -

only he didn’t care to be out of his crib because we were all in his room!

We moved to the hallway/living room and he was suddenly motivated.

He was having some trouble….

so he tried the other side….

Garrett frustrated, Mom confused!I took his shorts off and this was the last picture I got before he was sitting on top of the rail.

Ta-Daa!! That’s all it took and I get to be in this big boy bed!!!

Jackson helping Daddy! They’re becoming pros at this…. Garrett is a tad bit hyper about his bed -

I think his new “Tonka Small but Mighty!” shirt gave him too much confidence today.

Getting ready to go night night - He went to sleep without any issues. That wasn’t my worry though.

Our challenge will be him rolling out of the bed. We will probably have to buy the rail for his bed, but we will see how he does first.

As I typed that last line, Aaron and I heard a door shut. (11:30pm) We assumed it was Jackson going into the bathroom, but when I looked down the hallway, Jackson’s door and the bathroom door were opened. It was Garrett shutting his own door. I guess he didn’t like hearing the TV from the living room. When I went into his room, he was crawling back in bed like no big deal. The good thing is Garrett enjoys his sleep!

30 minutes later…. {small cries} “Mama….Mama….Mama.” I walked in, he points down to his baby that fell off the bed (yes, he has a baby…and a monkey…..and a blankie) and says “Baby….baby…..” I gave him his baby and all is well…for now. I think I am going to be a light sleeper tonight.

Night at the Circus - It was a good IDEA anyway....

Thanks to my sister, we had free tickets to the circus. She got them from one of her "connections" that works at the American Airline Center. We could go any night, we just had to give the box office these passes in while they exchange them for the best seats available!

Aaron is back on call with work, so Thursday morning we decided if he wasn't called out we would go to the circus! Since we have never taken the boys to the circus, we really prepared that by showing them videos of the circus on the computer. We wanted them to be excited....and we were successful in doing this!

Knowing the earlier we got to the AAC, the better our seats would be, we had a quick dinner at Wild About Harrys. We thought a yummy hot dog would put us in the circus mood!

Jackson and Garrett's meal came with an ice cream, so they quickly enjoyed their ice cream before we rushed them out the door. We had FREE tickets and I wanted the BEST seats! Maybe we could get front row! It's was Thursday night. Surely it wouldn't be crowded, but I am not a risk taker and wanted to get there early.

As we are driving around looking for the a parking lot, I saw a sign which read "Tonight's Event Sold Out." Yep....that event that we got the boys so pumped up about was sold out. We couldn't trade in our passes for tickets if there weren't any tickets available. Never did we think the circus would sell out on Thursday night or we could have exchanged them earlier in the day.

We were so disappointed. Garrett could have cared less, but when we told Jackson we couldn't go he said "Yessssss we can too go.....Ugh huh!" At that point, Aaron and I were just trying to think of where we could take them that would be fun. At that point, we would have suggested the zoo if we weren't loosing daylight. We couldn't even go out for dessert since they just had ice cream.....remember, the ice cream we rushed them through?! Every idea we had, Jackson said no to, but we finally got a smile when we suggested going to a playground.

They both had a blast at the playground and forgot about the circus....but Mommy and Daddy were sure upset!

Garrett was sliding down the wall you're supposed to climb up and he thought he was the funniest kid ever.

The Swings Swung...a little too high....

Saturday morning, the boys and I went to Canton with my mom while Aaron was working on a sprinkler installation near my parent's house. We had a great time at Canton, hung out at my parent's house, then when Aaron was finished working for the day, we all headed home. It was around 5:00, so we thought it would be a good night to go to the hospital to visit Shelly and Brooks.

On the drive home the weather was bad so I began to think that I should stay home with the boys while Aaron's goes to the hospital alone. When we got home, Aaron jumped in the shower, I opened up all the blinds, the boys and I noticed the swings blowing like crazy, and I checked the weather online in our office. Right as I see online that Kaufman is getting hammered, I hear Aaron yell " (insert bad word here) The swing set is gone!!" I immediately laugh because #1: How in the world could our swing set be GONE? #2: I JUST saw it less than 30 seconds ago.

I run into the living room and see Aaron throwing on his rain suit. I look out the back window and see the swing set flipped over on its side, pieces broken off, wood everywhere, and laying in the back part of our backyard near the back fence. Aaron runs outside, I yell at his brother Michael who was in the other shower (he helped with the sprinkler installation), Michael runs outside, and the boys and I just sit and stare out the back window.

I wanted to cry. Jackson got that for his 2nd birthday....he will be 3 on September 27th. We only had it for a little over 10 months. That's what the boys play on when we go outside. That's what they love.

When it storms and winds are strong, I always worried about the tarp ripping. Never did I think the whole darn thing would blow away. We feel like the tarp is actually what helped it to be pulled off the ground. The bad thing is their Little Tikes picnic table didn't even move.

The swing set DOES have a warranty, but not for "An Act of God." I called this morning to see if it would be covered under our homeowners insurance. It is covered, but with our deductible it's not worth it.

Our goal has been to put our house on the market at the end of the week, but now Aaron has another project to take care of. We are going to have to pull up the area we had for the swing set and lay a pallet of grass. Even though it makes me sad, everything happens for a reason. Maybe looking out the back window and seeing the land will be more appealing to a buyer than seeing the swing set.....maybe our kids were getting a little too brave and we were about to deal with broken bones.....or maybe this was our sign to stay off of the road that night...who knows.

Here are some pictures of after Aaron and Michael moved it closer to our house. It could have been A LOT worse....it could have landed on our roof, went through a window, landed on Aaron's truck....etc. So, we were lucky if you can call this luck....

Some things don't always go your way...

Saturday I am taking Jackson and Garrett to Photography by Cupcake to have their 2 year/6 month pictures taken. If you remember, when Jackson was 6 months, he did a pasta scene. For Garrett's 6 month pictures, we are doing a baking scene. This morning after breakfast, I started looking through my things to see what all I had and what I needed to buy. One thing we need is a bowl large enough for Garrett to sit in. I got out my big bowl and sat Garrett in it to make sure he would fit. Needless to say, Jackson thought this looked fun, but became a little frustrated when he couldn't find a bowl large enough for him. He tried....

Garrett never really became interested in rolling over. He rolled over for the first time around 3 months, but never really understood the whole concept. He likes his back, he likes his tummy....so I guess he figures why do I need to put forth the effort to roll over when I am happy where I am at. If there is a really cool toy he wants that is out of reach, he will sometimes roll to get it...but other than that he is happy in whatever position I put him in. I posted this picture of him because he always does this. He will arch his head so far back to see what is going on behind him. Normally it is even more of an arch than the picture shows. If he would just flip on his tummy, he could see a lot better....but nope, he has his own way of doing it.

I did ask his doctor about him not rolling much. She was not concerned at all since he is sitting. She said if he was not rolling or sitting, she would be concerned...but since he is sitting, he is fine. She said BIG babies just don't like to roll. It is too much work for them!
The battle with Jackson's nap continues. I also asked his doctor about this and she said it is extremely common at his age. They are so busy they don't want to miss anything! Bed time is still as simple as ever....no problems. That has not changed. However, since he would stand in his crib and scream for 2 hours during nap time, we have started letting him take naps in a location of his choice. Normally he will pick the couch. He has napped in "Mom Daddy Bed" (as he says) two times, and he tried the laundry basket once (didn't really work out for him), but most of the time he will pick the couch. The picture of him above is of him taking a nap with his baseball glove on.....Hey, whatever works for you dude!

This is a hard thing for me to adjust to. I am firm about their naps, following a routine, schedule, etc....but I had no choice but to give into this. For the 2 weeks that he was screaming during nap time, his behavior was awful in the evenings. He desperately needed a nap! When I talked to his doctor about it, she agreed with me that this probably starting a habit, but she said it is very important for him to take a nap....so do whatever I need to do...she had to do the same thing with her daughter.

I guess on the positive side, Jackson has never known how to fall asleep anywhere but in his crib, his car seat, or his pack and play. There have been many occasions when we were away from home during nap time and there is not a pack and play for him to sleep in. Someone will try to lay with him to get him to go to sleep, but that doesn't work! He just thought it was time to play! That's not what he is used to and toddlers get a little crazy when you disturb their normal routine and way of doing things. So maybe letting him "pick his nap location" will end up helping. (I am trying to be positive) Who knows, but what I do know is that our evenings are a lot more pleasant since he has been sleeping during nap time.