Ever since giving up the thumb about 7 or 8 months ago, naps have been very "iffey" around here. This winter, Carter stopped napping and really never missed a beat. We just put him to be around 6:30 or 7:00 at night and all was well. I settle for a "rest" time and loved having the evenings kid free with Joel.
Well, the "never missing a beat" part all went downhill when the warm weather rolled around. We were all of the sudden outside playing and swimming and sweating, and we had some grumpiness creep in. So, back to naps we went for about a month. Then after a month, he would just lie in his bed for a long period of time and not fall asleep or if he did fall asleep, he was WIDE AWAKE at 9:30 and 10:00 at night even if it was only a one hour nap. That is my bedtime, people!
So here we are at a catch 22. If he naps, he is up super late and ends up being grumpy the next day because he only got 10 hours of sleep. If he doesn't nap, then we end up with a very grumpy kiddo about every couple days when it catches up with him.
Yesterday happened to be one of the days it caught up with him. Here was my thought process: Well, it's 4:00 and Carter is a little grumpy. Let's go to the pool for a fun distraction because he loves the pool! Then we will come home, eat dinner, and put him to bed early." W-R-O-N-G!!!!!
We got to the pool and everyone there had the privilege of witnessing the tantrum from hell. Hahaha! It's laughable today, but yesterday, it was nothing but humorous as every person at the pool looked at me with eyes that said, "That poor pitiful mother."
The tantrum was over not wanting to wear his floaties. I told him he had to wear them because I had both boys there by myself, and I didn't want him to go under water. It was a safety issue. One mom...two boys...we needed floatation devices. Well, he did not want to wear them (he usually loves his floaties) so he sat on the side of pool and screamed for 15 minutes. After seeing that he wasn't going to calm down, I packed up and we went to the car. The screaming got louder and louder as we made our exit :)
My friend, Elizabeth, felt so sorry for me that she actually called to check and make sure I was okay. Yes, it was that bad.
He fell asleep for 10 minutes in the car on the way home and didn't fall asleep last night until 9:00 because of that little catnap. What in the world? He just rolled around asked for water a lot and mama alot, etc.
Today is a new day! I am going to see if he'll take a nap every few days and just let him stay up late if he actually falls asleep during nap time. What else do you do? :)
When you become a mom, everyone knows that at some point, your child will throw a tantrum in public and act like he or she has never been disciplined. It's one of the things you sign up for I guess. Ha!
So there you go....a "keeping it real" post :) Ain't life grand?
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