The brain is off

I'm struggling with coming up with an interesting post. I think I'm too tired to be creative or notice the interesting things that happen during my day.

Hope's sleep is in the can. She's decided that unless she is asleep right beside me in our bed, she will wake up every hour. I remember that Emily starting waking up hourly at 5 months old. It must be something developmental because Hope will be 5 months in a few days. Although I went through it with Emily and came out the other side, I have no memory of how we fixed it. We moved her into her own room I remember and that had a marginal effect. I imagine we'll be trying that soon with Hope, because I just don't sleep that well with her beside me, as nice as it is.

Today we are off to church playgroup, and if there is time, I'm going to go get our Chariot. If no time, I'll get it tomorrow morning before I take the girls for our first family swim. I'll make sure to take some pictures of that!

Time to escape the basement now and leave Barney behind. The songs are really getting to me today. It's that damn BJ's voice... couldn't they find a puppeteer who doesn't have 30-year smoker's voice?

Emily and her nap

Emily is refusing naps as of three days ago. This throws a real wrench in things for me. It is the only time during the day, besides the evening that I have to myself. Now I'm faced with the dilemma of trying to force it on her (my current strategy) or letting it go and hope it comes back. I know that she still needs a nap. She's definitely tired after lunch and when she has missed the nap the last three days, she's a real bear by supper. I also don't want to just let it go and then lose the routine of offering her a nap because it will be that much harder to get her back to doing it when she stops fighting me over it.

John wonders if it is caused by sugar in her diet. She is eating more sweets lately, with the Smartie incentives of toilet training and the Christmas baking around. Before I give into her not napping, I'm going to try the sugar removal. I'll just keep at her for a few more days.

I told her today that if she keeps climbing out of bed and fighting me over her nap, she won't be able to watch any t.v. until she takes a good nap. That definitely put the fear of God into her but I'm not sure if it translates into change.

I'd welcome any advice!

Humming along

There isn't much to report on from here at the moment. Emily is being a toddler - the last few days she is hot and cold with toilet use. Hopefully I'll be able to get her back on track during the coming week. Hope is doing really well. I've been working on changing her sleep location a little bit and it has therefore been a bit of a struggle the last couple of days but nothing that I can really complain about. Especially since she slept five hours straight last night!

The week ahead will probably be our usual routine - library, playgroup, and who knows what else (maybe a visit to the farm?)... we have to get our flu shots this week too. Ick.

The only question mark for the week will be if John goes on strike on Wednesday. That could make life a little interesting around here. We'll pull out the guitars and ponchos and head for the water tower.