Last Friday I had grand ideas of sitting around in my pj’s relaxing all weekend. Then I started thinking about all of the things I needed to do, like grocery shopping so we could actually eat, and figuring out where exactly I was going to have Zach’s birthday party since I still hadn’t reserved the park shelter I wanted. Suddenly, my lazy weekend turned into a very busy one.
I ended up spending Friday evening and much of Saturday running errands. Saturday afternoon we went over to my mom’s to help her set up one of those 12 foot round pop up pools in her back yard. Since we no longer have her apartment complex pool to invade, we figured we needed something for the kiddos to splash around in this summer.
While the pool was filling up, we took the men of the family (hubby, my brother, and my brother-in-law) out for a Father’s Day dinner. Once our bellies were sufficiently full, we headed back to the house to watch a movie and monitor the water level of the pool. I think it was around 11:00 by the time we ended up leaving.
We spent most of Sunday at my dad’s house. Zach ended up taking an extra late nap and then refused to go to bed. He was still awake at 11:15 when I finally went to bed and had an extremely crabby morning on Monday. It was a great way to start out the week.
I am really beginning to feel like my summer is over before it even really begins. There are still two days to go before the "official" first day of summer and we already have plans for the next five weekends in a row. Three of those weekend we’ll be traveling out of town and the other two will be consumed with a certain someone’s birthday party and some family activities.
Besides the traveling and other activities coming up in the next few weeks, it seems that my office space will be turned completely upside down for a while. Beginning Monday, we’ll have a construction crew in here remodeling the office space. When all is said and done it will be really nice, but in the meantime I am going to be a bit displaced. My work space will be wherever I can manage to find a chair and a plug-in for my laptop. If I’m lucky I’ll get to do some work from home where I have an actual desk. It is going to be pretty hard to work in the office when I have no space to spread out. The good news is that I will have a real office (with a door!) when it is all finished.
The alternative to him sleeping with us is that I stay in Zach’s room with him until he falls asleep again. He’ll settle back down in his own bed as long as I stay there with him. If I leave, he stands at the door and screams until I come back. I’m not so fond of this alternative when it’s 3:00 in the morning and I just want to go back to sleep myself. I have ended up falling asleep on his floor on more than one occasion and then waking up hours later with a sore back and neck.
My solution to this problem is to get him a big bed, probably a twin size for now. It would give him more room to wiggle around in, feel more like mom and dad’s bed, and would give me space to lay down next to him for a while if he wakes in the night.
I realize that he’ll probably still want to crawl into bed with us from time to time, but we all might get a little more sleep this way. Now I just have to figure out what style of bed I want and how in the heck I’m going to pay for it!
When my kids were toddlers and crawled into bed with us at night, I simply got up right then, took them by the hand, and walked them back to their own beds. If they fussed, sometimes I’d sit there on the edge of their bed until they went back to sleep. I loved having them in my bed, but I figured if I didn’t stop it when they were two, they’d be harder to stop at age five.
We did that with Ryan too. I finally had to commit to taking him back to his bed every time. After about a week he stopped climbing into our bed. He still does it occationally, but he is much better about it now.
I got Zac a twin size bed and just put the mattress and box spring on the ground (with no frame). It’s much lower to the ground and he can (sort of) climb in and out of it on his own. I also don’t worry about him falling out of it. Really, it would be more of a rolling motion.
Check the Freecyclers in your area. I assume that you want to keep the crib/toddler bed for Kiddo #2, but I got a free twin bed from someone and I always see them listed on freecylce or craigslist.
ah, the big kid bed. very exciting step!
glad to see you still hanging around and even commenting! i miss you when you’re gone. 🙂
@Donna – I do try to take him back to his own bed, usually a couple of times before I give in. I’m hoping the big kid bed will help a little as I can sit next to him or even lay with him a few minutes until he can calm down.
@Tanya – Maybe Ryan could talk some sense into Zach for me. As spirited as Ryan is at times, I think Zach still has him beat in the stubbornness department.
@TAFKANSP – First of all, I totally cracked up when I say your name. Second of all, I think I have a pretty good prospect on Craigslist that I’m hoping to go see tomorrow. After checking a few stores online I pretty much knew I had to find something cheaper.
@Lara – The big kid bed is very exciting. Everything lately is “big boy” this and “big boy” that so he’s pretty excited as well. I’m definitely still around, maybe not as often, but I’m still stopping by when I can.