Sunday, September 30, 2007

That's One Way to Stay Awake


It always amazes me to hear the various stories of kids and their "sleeping styles." Quantity, timing, location... all vary from kid to kid and even in the same kid from time to time. Just to keep us parents on our collective toes...

I was apparently one of those lovely children who didn't need much sleep. At all. Once my little brother came along my Mother had to enforce "quiet time" to try and get me to play or read quietly or something. My brother was on the opposite end of this spectrum and would sleep anytime, and almost anywhere. We have photos of him sleeping in the middle of someone's kitchen counter, and home movies of him ka-zonked in his highchair. A moving vehicle was the fastest way to put him out, and I think Mom worried a bit about putting him on the school bus.

Daniel's doing pretty well with the nighttime sleeping, but I am starting to suspect that we are phasing out the naps. He must still need them because he drops off pretty quickly, but one catnap of an hour or less and he's raring to go (usually... he blessed us with a 2.5 hour nap a few days ago).

Longer car trips can get a bit trickier: put a cozy car, with some of our windier back roads and the rhythm starts him nodding off. And that little bit of extra sleep can make bedtime a lot more interesting. H stumbled across a way to keep the little guy hopping recently. (Well it will work until the temperature drops dangerously...). Roll down the window on some curvy roads, and let the breeze blow through those blond curls! Daniel gets this elated look on his face, and we all laugh the last half of the trip home with the little voice from the backseat squealing: Do 'gen! Hair blo'!

1 comment:

Kimberly McKay said...

Yup. My son stopped naps at age 2! Now I'm used to it...but it took a while. Especially when he wouldn't sleep through the night...I really needed him to nap the next day. He's 4 1/2 and just now sleeping through the night! Praise God so am I!