One of the last things the kids do at night before bed is brush their teeth. Last night, as Ree was standing at the sink barely able to hold up her toothbrush, she looked at me and said, "Mom, I have no energy." Rather than pointing out the obvious, I thought I'd lead her there. I asked if she ate healthy foods all day. Yes. (At least in her mind.) I told her I knew she had taken her vitamin. Then I asked if she had taken a nap. Nope. I then gently pointed out that she was probably just tired. Oh.
Getting the kids to sleep enough is something I struggle with, especially with Ree. Her bedtime is 8:00, but it's not unusual for her to stay up until 8:30 or 8:45. Sometimes it's because we have to much going on and just don't get her to bed that quickly. Other nights she just stalls and stalls and stalls. And on the stalling nights, it's hard to be too mean about enforcing bedtime since it's obvious she's stalling in order to spend more time with us. If we just made her go to bed, she wouldn't get any more sleep, because she would just lay awake in bed angry, frustrated, and disappointed. She is such a girl. And Ree will sleep in until 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning to catch up on sleep. The problem is her brothers, especially Michael.
Michael is the kid who doesn't sleep. I was just reading that toddlers need 12 - 14 hours of sleep a day. Some days we feel like Michael sleeps 2 - 4 hours a day. The kid just doesn't want to sleep. And it doesn't help that when he wakes up, he is WIDE awake. He is my child.
He was actually doing a little better with sleeping in the mornings. He had started sleeping until 6:30 - 6:45, so two weeks ago I got the silly idea of working out in the morning. The first week, it went great. Last week he must've sensed I was up, even though I work out in the dark with the TV on mute (I do workout DVDs), and I am careful not to do any normal person morning stuff like flush a toilet or wash my face. So last week he started waking up between 6:15 and 6:20. I still worked out, I just had to listen to him moan (it's his version of whining) for the last few minutes.
But this week he apparently decided enough was enough. At Monday, he was up at 5:45. I listened to him moan for 5 minutes, then went in to try to tuck him back in bed thinking that it was early enough and dark enough that I had a chance. I calmly told him it was still night-night time and tried to put a blanket over him. That so didn't work. He started SCREAMING, which, of course, woke up his brother. Leon is a more normal person and wakes up groggy, especially when awoken at 5:45 when he would also prefer to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. So Leon started crying. I told them night-night again and left the room. They quieted down for a few minutes, but they were up for the day. And, of course, it wasn't long before they made enough noise to wake up their sister.
The boys were so exhausted on Monday that they fell asleep in the car at 9:15 in the morning on the way home from dropping off Ree at preschool. They slept until 11:00, but that was it for naps that day. They were not going to make their 12 - 14 hours.
Being the Pollyanna I am, I thought for sure they would sleep on Tuesday morning to catch up. On Tuesday morning, my alarm went off at 6:00. My first thought was, "Wow! I get to work out!" Before I could even turn it off, I heard Michael moan. Doh. And I would like to point out that my alarm is my cell phone on vibrate on the nightstand next to my bed. Michael sleeps at the other end of the house with a box fan next to his bed. There is no possible way he could've heard it. He could just sense the change in energy in the house.
Given my failing efforts on Monday morning, I decided to take a different approach. I walked in and found him sitting up in bed facing the door. He waved and said, "Hi, Mama!" Leon was still passed out. So I quietly ASKED this time if he wanted to go back to sleep. He stood up, smiled, and said, "No, silly!"
I hate it when he uses my own phrases (correctly!) against me.
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