So I think Jack has a good chance of becoming the next Michael Phelps. He is truly obsessed with water. He's started saying, "wa-wa" and pointing to water every chance he gets. He's fascinated by water fountains, loves the pool, and has become increasingly inseparable from the sprinkler. "Duck," and "quack, quack" have replaced "doggie" and "woof-woof" as his favorite sayings. He insists on washing his hands every time I do.
Also on the positive end of the hygiene spectrum, he spends at least 30 minutes a day brushing his teeth. Of course to Jack "brushing" his teeth means climbing onto his stepstool, sticking his toothbrush under the water for an excessively long time, sucking the water off his toothbrush, and then immediately signing "please" while saying "Wa-wa. Peeees" so that I turn the water on again. But since he only signs please with his right hand, before asking me, he first has to transfer the toothbrush to his left hand. It's an intricate process. One that we repeat at least 20 times a morning.
Unfortunately, Jack's interest in taking naps has waned significantly. I've had nearly everyone assure me that pretty soon Jack's morning nap will start disappearing and that he will seamlessly move to one long afternoon nap in a few days. Not happening. His morning nap is static at about 60-90 minutes and has never been any later than 9:30 or 10. The afternoon nap (aka Mommy's Sanity Saver), however, has deteriorated into a series of Jack making many attempts at sleep that last no longer than 20 minutes each. It's really hard to get anything done or to feel any sense of relaxation when I'm on call every 10-15 minutes.
I'm a determined woman, but Jack generally gets the better of me when he's been in the crib for an hour and a half, even if he hasn't gotten much sleep. It just seems cruel to keep trying to get him to bed for any longer than that. I've tried moving the morning nap later, but that just isn't happening. Today I tried waking Jack from his morning nap after 45 minutes. He was very, very cranky and was clearly not awake yet, but the afternoon nap seemed to be off to a good start. Until the phone rang and I couldn't get to it quickly. After that it was more of the same. I'm going to try that method again tomorrow, but I could certainly use any other suggestions anyone has...
Oh, and on the advice requests, if you have any other brilliant ideas for how to cover the bathtub water faucets, I could use it. The door knob covers were too small.
On a brighter note, last weekend we had a wonderful time with Jack's godmother Melanie and her husband Ankur Rughani. They drove in from South Bend on Saturday and hung out with us all weekend. On an action-packed Sunday we went to the St. Louis zoo (Ben's first time)
and church, then met up with our law school friends Angela and Khang for Ted Drews frozen custard (my first time) as they were moving Angela into town.
Since Stacy and Rich haven't been jumping at the chance to move into the house next door that's still for sale, we've now started trying to convince the Rughanis to move in. Who cares that they're supposed to be moving to DC in December--things can change, right?
3 comments:
Hi Jessica!
I read your blog often, Jack is such a little cutie.
I just recently switched my daughter Ella(she is 17 months) from two naps a day down to the one afternoon nap and it is wonderful. I thought I would really miss the quiet time in the mornings, but she was weaning it out herself anyway. And even if she did sleep then, in the afternoons she would only sleep for 30 minutes or so which just wasn't enough time for me to get anything done. So now we play all morning and then she goes to sleep right after lunch, around 1pm and sleeps for a minimum of 2 hours, sometimes 3. It is a nice time for me to get things done, and I even have time to relax a little too!
Hope this helps!!
Hello lovely,
Am currently beached on the sofa, counting the days until Kaia2 makes an appearance (17!!) so reading your blog has been a real sanity saver!
Just let me get baby #2 out the way then I'll start working on shipping the family out there!!!!
Nap-wise, Kaia is doing just the one nap: an hour and a half (sometimes 2 hours) at midday-ish. It's hard not to have more naptime (aka 'me' time) and tough to deal with Little Miss Cranky in the morning as I have to find lots of interesting activities late morning to keep her awake and stop her hitting the red zone before lunch (sandpit and a large spade usually does it) but the alternative is two much smaller naps 1 in morning and 1 in afternoon, which is just not enough for me to relax!
I really don't know what to suggest to get Jack's morning nap down - you could try weaning him off (reducing the time as you have tried) but that risks waking him mid-cycle and thus creating a monster! Alternatively I suppose you could try going cold turkey and trying one day with an activity FILLED morning to see if you can keep him going until mid day and see how that goes.
I am still looking for the on/off switch on Kaia, but have had no luck as of yet...!!!
Good luck yummy mommy xxx
ps - the 'o'in mommy is to show you I can still speak transatlantic - just with a slightly awkward British accent!!!!!!!
Look how big our boy has gotten! Oh my! Thanks for sharing the wonderful stories, I love the toothbrush story especially. You loved your toothbrush.
I also enjoyed reading the message from Stacy. I do miss hearing about adventures with Stacy and Kaia. I would love to see Kaia now, but very grateful to have Jack and his parents back in the States.
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