Sweet Success

Shhhh. . . Do you hear that? Hear what, you might ask? The SILENCE!!!! It's never sounded so sweet. David and Henry are both FINALLY taking naps in their beds!! Guess what the trick seems to be? We removed from the room virtually all other things for them to do! They had a horrible afternoon the other day, squirting almost an entire bottle of lotion all over the room, pulling the mattresses off, emptying the toybox, taking the train table apart and throwing the tracks everywhere, etc. That was the end of my rope, and Chris' as well. We put the train table, all of the trains, and their entire toy box full of toys in the garage. There are still toys in their room, locked in the closet with a doorknob cover. (For those who may think I'm cruel for taking away all of their toys, please note I said the toys in their bedroom. Trust me -- they've still got a playroom full of them. These are not children experiencing any sort of deprivation.) So today was the first day we were home for naps. We swam this morning, and came home to go to sleep. It took some coaxing and cajoling, but they did it! I let them chit chat and play for about 30 minutes, then went in. Henry was almost asleep on the floor and David was trying to play with him. I got them settled, then laid down with David (in a toddler bed the size of a crib) and sang to him for a minute, rubbed his face (don't ask -- always works) for a minute, and he was out. Henry was kicking the wall. . . I did the same with Henry, rubbing his face with his silky blanket, and it took less than 30 seconds. They've been out for three hours! I'm sure they'll wake up soon, but it's been so nice to have them napping again. They needed it! And so did I. . . I took myself a nice nap too!

I'm off to whip something up for dinner. . . UGH! I've seriously slacked off on my meal preparations for the last few weeks. I'm very tired in the afternoon, and don't feel like cooking. At. All. I feel like my family deserves to eat a better meal than waffles tonight though, so I'm going to give it a good try!