Schedule Sabatoge: Day 3

Day3:
??? wake up
8:30 breakfast
1:00 lunch
2:00-4:45 nap
6:15 dinner
9:00 bed

Can you believe it? I don't know what time Talia woke up this morning! How anti-climatic! We've had some rough nights lately which means I've been pretty tired so I slept in this morning. When I woke up at 8:00 all three kids were awake--Benjamin & Talia quietly reading books in their beds and Leila babbling happily to herself. (What a dream! Can you believe it?) I'm pretty sure Benjamin had been up since 6:45 when he woke up to go potty (he had quite a stack of books on his bed), but Talia only had 3, which probably means she hadn't been awake for long. My guess is she slept in until about 7:45. Wahoo!

Breakfast was early this morning, but due to haircuts & the required kitchen clean-up afterward lunch was late. After lunch Talia went straight to her nap. Although she didn't really want to lay down she fell asleep pretty quickly and slept soundly. So soundly, in fact, she was sopping wet when she woke up. Evidently it's a good idea to put a nap pull-up on a sleep deprived toddler.

I'm putting them to bed a bit late and I'm hoping that tomorrow morning we'll be back in business!

Talia's New Hair!

I've been thinking for awhile now about what to do with Talia's wild hair. Yesterday I did quite a bit of research online about toddler girl haircuts and hair styles and found out that wild hair is quite common at Talia's age. Phew! Maybe it won't last forever. Meanwhile, I found some ideas for shorter hairstyles to help even up the back with the slower-growing sides and give the mess some shape. So with a bit of fear & trembling this morning I gave Talia her first styled (as opposed to a little trim) haircut--just some basic layers. It bounced up even more than I anticipated after it dried, but I think it turned out pretty cute. It will definitely take me some time to get used to it, but I think it will help her hair be less of a mess as it makes the transition from baby hair to little girl hair.

Schedule Sabatoge: Day 2

Day2:
7:15 wake up
9:00 breakfast
12:45 lunch
4:00-5:00 nap
6:00 dinner
8:30 bed

After Talia woke up at 7:15 this morning she read books while she waited for Benj to wake up. He woke up at 8:30 so we ate breakfast pretty much on schedule. For the rest of the morning the kids played while Leila napped. (That's a whole different issue--while I'm trying to mess up Talia's schedule, I'm trying to keep Leila's very consistent as she has been very restless and fussy lately.) We at a late-ish lunch, finishing as Leila woke up from her 3-hour nap. After feeding Leila I decided it was time to go to the store (a task we have never, ever before done after lunch). The kids were so confused! I was nervous to go with 2 tired toddlers on my hands but we were completely out of milk and almost out of cereal and as I wasn't able to go in the morning due to my mega-napper, I really had little choice. I must say the kids really did amazingly well! They had great attitudes and didn't fight at all! I was so proud of them.

I intended to skip nap today and put the kids to bed early, but Talia fell asleep in the car again on the way home from the store. I let her sleep, but woke her up after an hour, not wanting to have another late bedtime tonight. It took her a good 20 minutes to begin to speak coherent sentences after I got her up, she is SO tired! I also intended to get them in bed by 7:30 tonight but forgot to factor in a promise we made that they could watch a VeggieTales video that Seth checked out from the library so I didn't get them in bed until 8:10, with all said & done by 8:30. Oh well! We'll see....

Fun with scheduling

We are currently on day 9 of Talia losing 1-2 hours of sleep each day due to her little body's inability to make the time change. (One hour in the morning and sometimes one hour at nap time.) For some reason this is the first time we have ever had an issue with this. Other years it has just seemed to pan out somehow.

So I asked for some advice from my fellow moms on facebook. I received some great suggestions but the one that sounded best for our family was to completely turn her schedule upside down for a few days until her body doesn't know what time it is and then re-establish our normal routine. So we are going for it! I thought I'd blog about it so I'll remember how I did it next year and also so you can be amused with me at how long this takes and what lengths we go to to get this girl to sleep! Oh and, by the way, since I can't figure out a way to have Benjamin keep his normal schedule in the midst of all this, he's along for the ride. Poor guy!

First, our normal sleep & meal routine is:
8:00 wake up
9:00 breakfast
12:30 lunch
1:30-3:30 or 4:00 nap
6:00 dinner
8:00 bed

Day1:
7:00 wake up
8:30 breakfast in the car on the way to church
1:00 lunch
4:00-6:00 nap
7:30 dinner
10:00 bed

Yesterday was our first official "crazy day." We went to church in the morning, as usual. After church we went to eat lunch and then to the mall to buy Seth some shoes. On our way home, just a minute or two before we got there, Talia fell asleep in her car seat. Seth carried her in and put her in bed. After she woke up we put our pj's on, had breakfast for dinner, brushed our teeth, and watched Toy Story 2. The kids (more Benj, who no longer naps, than Talia) were exhausted by the time we put them in bed at 10:00pm.

This morning Talia woke up at... are you ready for this? ... 7:15. It's going to be a long week. :)

Random Cuteness

One day while we were riding in the car Talia requested to listen to a certain CD. Typically the kids want to listen to the same CD over & over & over until I am ready to drive off the road. Such were the circumstances on this particular occasion. I declined her request telling her, "It's Mama's turn to pick." And we went on our merry way, listening to the radio. After a few minutes of silence I heard Talia mutter darkly from the backseat, "I don't like it when 'dults pick."

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Some fun vocabulary:

A couple of recent songs heard within our walls:
--"Oatmeal Donald Had a Farm"
--"Super kakkie abagiba goshuh" (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Talia style) Benj calls it "Super ca-ya case we have a goshus."

We love Winnie the Pooh and all his friends, including "Christmas Robin."

And prompted by our recent viewing of the Pixar movie "A Bug's Life," Talia has decided that "obber zibbers" (grasshoppers) scare her.

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Comfort

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

Trick or Treat ...

... but please don't give us anymore candy! :)

All dressed up and ready to go! (Leila was still sleeping)
The "cute little punkin" (as Benj & Talia called her) joins the party
Daddy & two happy trick or treaters
Happy Pumpkin
Exhausted, well, except Talia. She always has energy. :)