Our Kids

Well the girls are giving up their afternoon nap. It is not that they don’t need it but with the nap it takes about 3 hours of putting them down per day, most of that is putting Piper back in her bed. In addition to putting the girls back in bed they just don’t seem to be able to fall asleep within 20 min, sometimes it takes them up to two hours. So they need a wee bit of a nap but a wee bit just isn’t that easy to get. But the nighttime routine is going better but Lela can fall asleep in two minutes which means that she is probably overtired BUT all in all things are going okay. It is a new adjustment to our routine and one that has come with a few afternoon meltdowns but all of it is manageable.

Today we went to gymnastics and the girls had a blast, it was a leave behind class but they did really well (I peeked from the upstairs window). Then we went to the park and the girls played until 1PM, came back home and had lunch and then read books. I am finding that if we go full blast in the morning and then have a relaxed afternoon we can keep the emotional outbursts to a minimum which is best for all of us. They might go back to napping in the heat of the summer but we will see. The nap is always on offer but no longer a requirement. I might have to learn to nap with my eyes open, LOL!

So I am really big on modeling the behavior that I want the girls to have. I try to eat right, exercise, recycle, clean up litter, be kind and a lot of other behaviors that I want to foster in the girls. We have done a really good job, IMHO. One thing I just realized is that I don’t model one behavior that I do want in the girls and that is cleaning up. I get so focused on making sure the girls are having a good time that we are go go go and I find myself (and Jason) cleaning up after the girls go to bed. By the end of the week we are swimming in stuff that did not get picked up and annoyed with ourselves for not getting it cleaned up. Last week we started a new routine and it seems to be going well, before we leave the house we have to pick up, before they do an activity they really want to do we have to pick up…well you get the idea. It seems to be going well, the girls are really helpful with things but this is more about keeping the house nice and tidy and being able to find things when we need them. Now in the mornings we get the house picked up and read books or whatnot until it is time to go, the only downside is starting the getting ready routine even earlier (as if that was possible) to make sure we have time to talk about cleaning up and to actually clean up. I am finding that it could take us as long as 2 hours to actually get ready to go somewhere, LOL!