I had a brilliant idea this year: We were going to get all our Christmas baking done while Edith napped! It was a foolproof plan until... Edith decided to go on an incredibly long nap strike (I'm not convinced it's over, but she DID nap yesterday for the first time in weeks so here's hoping). So... It was not as peaceful an experience as one might expect. Oh wait, you wouldn't expect it to be a peaceful experience no matter what!
I did wait until Peter was out of the house (just one less crazy to deal with) and had the kids work in "stations" which actually made things a little easier. First they had to clean off the table, clean their rooms, and then the slackers had to go stack firewood for 5 minutes while the others got to roll a tray full of cookies. They shifted to candy unwrapping, then candy placement, then the non-slackers finished by stacking firewood.
Meanwhile Edith sat in her high chair begging for scraps of cookie dough. And candy. She didn't eat too much and Peter wasn't upset that he had missed this bout of baking, so I guess it was a success?
Re: Edith’s nap strike. At what point does a nap strike become a nap total-abandonment? My 2.5 year old has gone from daily 2-3 hour naps to taking a single nap in the last 3 weeks. When I put him in his room for “quiet time” he just stands at his door and cries. Please tell me any of your secrets for reclaiming afternoon peace; between this new development and a teething 4 month old we are pretty tired over here!
ReplyDeleteUGH it's the worst, especially when you were really counting on that toddler-free time. She finally took a real nap yesterday, after staying up late and waking up early... So maybe sleep deprivation is the key? But 2.5/3 has generally been the end of naps for us anyway, so it's definitely coming :( Can he have "special toys" he only gets in his room during quiet time? That's worked with some of our kids but it really depends...
DeleteI will try the “special toy” strategy and see if it does the trick! Thanks for the idea!
DeleteMy two sons are 6 weeks apart. When they were little, one of them still needed his nap but the other didn't. They shared a room and had always been together so I knew it would be impossible to get the napper down without the non-napper in there too. So I made it seem like a big deal that they got to have a quiet time downstairs instead of taking a nap...that they were big boys now. Each one would be on a separate couch with all their books and maybe a quiet toy or two and I would sit where I could see them both. The one who needed his nap would always fall asleep and the other one would quietly look at his books and play with his quiet toys. It worked out perfectly for us and we did that for quite a while, even after the napper quit needing his nap...because the mom still needed her quiet time:).
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea! I’ll store this one in my back pocket too.
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