We will see how far I get in this post without interruption. S is supposedly putting Lil' S2 down for his nap (Lil' S1 is occupied with the iPad, as per usual), but I can hear those little legs running around upstairs.
And no sooner did I finish that sentence then he came bounding down the stairs and wanted me to take him on a walk, which I did, so I now have little time to finish this post, but I will do my best.
Walking is one of the few ways we can get him to go down these days. He's at that unfortunate age where he doesn't absolutely need nap and he certainly doesn't want to nap, but if he doesn't take one the chances of a six pm meltdown go up drastically. S and I have different mindsets on this. I take a more laissez-faire approach -- I'll try to get him down, but if he's not into it, then I'm not pushing it too far. And then after that initial window has closed, I actually prefer if he doesn't nap because if he sleeps too late in the afternoon it's a nightmare to put him to bed at night. I'd rather deal with an early evening meltdown than have it be 10:30 pm and he's still running around.
The other thing I will do is the walk, like today. S also opposes this because she says she doesn't want us to "rely" on this method, lest nothing else work. My feeling is: There's not much left for us to "nap train" him for. He's basically done with them. We should be squeezing out as many as we can while we can -- if the only way to do that is with a walk, so be it. It's actually a good thing for me because I enjoy walking and I get some exercise. Today it all worked out because S was very tired, and she wanted to nap, and he was annoying her, so she was in whatever works mode.
Sleeping schedules is one of those things where S and I have learned to compromise -- the compromise being, you do it your way when it's your turn; I do it my way when it's my turn. And we keep our mouths closed when the other one is doing it their way. (Although that latter part is not as stringently adhered to, by either side, as it should be.)
In other news, I started reading Moby-Dick on a whim, a while ago, and I'm almost done with it. It's really quite good (which is probably why it's, you know, a classic and whatnot), but it's pretty long, and there is a lot of whale talk into it -- like a lot a lot -- like multiple chapters that are just about describing the anatomy of a whale in textbook-like detail. I wonder how accurate most of it is now, being that it was written over 150 years ago, and our knowledge of whales has surely increased dramatically. Actually, I wonder how much of it was accurate even by the standards of the day. But it doesn't really matter. The beauty of the book isn't in it's description of whales; it's in its little observations of life that still remain true today. It's amazing how much I can relate to a Nantucket whaler from pre-Civil War America.
It's also got a bunch of terrific arcane words in it I only know from Scrabble and crossword puzzles. Here is an incomplete list:
And no sooner did I finish that sentence then he came bounding down the stairs and wanted me to take him on a walk, which I did, so I now have little time to finish this post, but I will do my best.
Walking is one of the few ways we can get him to go down these days. He's at that unfortunate age where he doesn't absolutely need nap and he certainly doesn't want to nap, but if he doesn't take one the chances of a six pm meltdown go up drastically. S and I have different mindsets on this. I take a more laissez-faire approach -- I'll try to get him down, but if he's not into it, then I'm not pushing it too far. And then after that initial window has closed, I actually prefer if he doesn't nap because if he sleeps too late in the afternoon it's a nightmare to put him to bed at night. I'd rather deal with an early evening meltdown than have it be 10:30 pm and he's still running around.
The other thing I will do is the walk, like today. S also opposes this because she says she doesn't want us to "rely" on this method, lest nothing else work. My feeling is: There's not much left for us to "nap train" him for. He's basically done with them. We should be squeezing out as many as we can while we can -- if the only way to do that is with a walk, so be it. It's actually a good thing for me because I enjoy walking and I get some exercise. Today it all worked out because S was very tired, and she wanted to nap, and he was annoying her, so she was in whatever works mode.
Sleeping schedules is one of those things where S and I have learned to compromise -- the compromise being, you do it your way when it's your turn; I do it my way when it's my turn. And we keep our mouths closed when the other one is doing it their way. (Although that latter part is not as stringently adhered to, by either side, as it should be.)
In other news, I started reading Moby-Dick on a whim, a while ago, and I'm almost done with it. It's really quite good (which is probably why it's, you know, a classic and whatnot), but it's pretty long, and there is a lot of whale talk into it -- like a lot a lot -- like multiple chapters that are just about describing the anatomy of a whale in textbook-like detail. I wonder how accurate most of it is now, being that it was written over 150 years ago, and our knowledge of whales has surely increased dramatically. Actually, I wonder how much of it was accurate even by the standards of the day. But it doesn't really matter. The beauty of the book isn't in it's description of whales; it's in its little observations of life that still remain true today. It's amazing how much I can relate to a Nantucket whaler from pre-Civil War America.
It's also got a bunch of terrific arcane words in it I only know from Scrabble and crossword puzzles. Here is an incomplete list:
- Fain: Happily willing
- Tierce: Third
- Poser: Baffling question or puzzle
- Stove: Smashed (past tense of stave)
- Wight: Human being
Another thing about Moby-Dick is that I have yet to read what I think of as the iconic phrase from the book: "Thar she blows!" Everything I've read so far is "There she blows!" (Emphasis mine.) I wonder if somebody says this later (I still have a bit left) or if this is just one of those misnomer lines like "Play it again, Sam."
Anyway, everybody is up now, and we are off to the park. Until next time...
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