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'!

A flirty flirt of the most flirtatious order...

I think my son is developing some crushes. Not on some of the pigtailed little girls we've seen in playgroups, mind you... but the Moms. Multiple times (and at least twice now with one rather nice Mom) he has marched over to them smiling, and practically draping himself over their laps, proudly displaying his latest car or truck and putting his head on their shoulder. If they happen to be standing, he parks himself practically on their feet with arms held high in the air and all but demanding,"Pick me up!" All of them have been terrifically nice about it, but really. It's getting a little embarrassing. I mean they are there with their own kids to wrangle, not having to cart around mine!

In not-so-terrific-toddler-news... I'm sure many of you have heard by now of the Mom and toddler who were kicked off a plane after a flight attendant suggested medicating the boy when he wouldn't quiet down and stop saying, "Bye-bye plane."

Speaking as a Mom who has had to help deal with a crying baby on a two hour flight, stories like these just make me shudder. Children have just as much right to be there as any passenger, and I have certainly heard worse than this on many a flight. There can be such - dare I use the word - discrimination surrounding issues such as this. Breastfeeding is touted as the best thing for your child, but women who choose to breastfeed, and do so in public, are often made to feel embarrassed or even told to go use the public restroom (yuck!). And children on a plane should apparently be seen and not heard. It wasn't even a tantrum! Was it just the luck of the draw that the only reaction my crying child got was sympathetic looks? (OK, perhaps some weren't so sympathetic, but I think they at least recognized that we were trying everything we could...) That and the loan of a portable DVD player and a Baby Einstein DVD from the Dad traveling behind us.