The house of one nap

You wouldn't think that going from one nap to two (Levi, not me, in case that wasn't obvious) would make a HUGE difference in my day. But it does!

I figured I'd just get right to the point of my post. It all started back in - oh - The end of May I'd say. Levi would take two naps every day for like a week, and then there would come a single day when he simply wouldn't go down for a second one. As the weeks went by we had more and

more days like this until sometime in the middle of September we were having more one-nap days than two-nap days. To make matters worse, that ONE nap (on the one nap days) was quite short. It was only the standard 60-75 minutes. One short nap = a cranky toddler.

Fast forward to this past week and all of the sudden I have a toddler who has started sleeping 12 hours (instead of the standard 10.5) at night and napping 90+ minutes smack in the middle of the day. I guess I always thought in the back of my mind that he would get it all ironed out, but it seemed like it was taking forever.

Needless to say, I'm happy that I'm now left with a very happy kiddo who sleeps well at night (for the most part), and takes one very decent nap during the mid-day. The only downside is that now I don't have my time in the morning to blog.

I know, you're sitting there at your computer singing a song of pity for me. You're playing your tiny finger violin all the while thinking "you should be THRILLED to have a toddler who sleeps and naps at reasonably tolerable, and also predictable intervals!" and rest assured, I am. No,

really, I AM! But like most humans on the face of this earth, I dislike change because it makes me uncomfortable and it breaks my routine. Do you follow? What I mean to say is that I'm not so much complaining, as I am making a valid excuse for my lack of blogging... and by all expectations, my future lack of blogging.

As for what has been going on recently - I have begun to redefine the word "busy". Life with a toddler is much different than life with an infant (and I suspect life with a toddler plus any other children would be exponentially more busy). Levi and I spend the majority of our mornings these days out and about. We run our errands, We go to the Childrens Museum (one of this

country's best), we go to the zoo, we play with our pals at the park, we visit friends at their homes, hunt down garage sale treasures, and all sorts of other things. For the most part, I do my best to tire the boy out.

By 11:30 we are home for lunch, and some time around 12:30 (sometimes as late as 1:30 recently, as he has been *GASP* sleeping until 8:00am) Levi takes a nap. This nap, all depending on how well I tired him out, can last from 90 minutes to 3 hours. Needless to say, I do my VERY best tiring him out.

Once awake for the afternoon, we usually have some cuddle time in our rocker where he likes to nurse and be quiet while mommy catches up on Oprah's latest. Then, we're off again, out of the house to run an errand or visit a friend. On days where there simply isn't another errand to run we try to keep as busy as possible with chalk, and crayons, and bubbles. We play with water, sticks in the yard, and anything that rolls. We go on nature walks, visit our next-door neighbo

rs, or walk to the Library. Sometimes we Skype with family in Seattle.

The theme of our day is "busy". Why? because This little dude has more energy than he knows what to do with. Without an outlet for said energy I end up with a very crabby toddler who whines and hangs on my ankles while signing "nurse" and saying "MUH?" (which loosely

translates to "milk-time", our phrase for nursing)

So, in short, don't be surprised if the theme of my blog ends up being "I'll-update-it-when-I-get-around-to-it" and blogging subjects are less interesting, and more informative.

Some day I'll get around to typing up the rest of my costco/supersaver/target price comparisons. Some day. For now, I leave you with a very cute picture of two very cute kids I saw at the pumpkin patch. So cute, I even took one of them home!