Sweet Surrender

I originally intended to write a blog post about the kidlets and how they are changing. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the screen and thinking "I'm really tired", I realized that post has to wait for a more mentally alert time.

Sleep is in short supply for me these days, as my kids are taking turns changing their habits. Hence, the lack of blogging.I thought I had this "two kids" thing all figured out and then, sure enough, they went and changed on me. It helps to remember that this is only a short term exhaustion. And I'm learning how to surrender to the inevitable...even when it doesn't quite fit my plans.

Addie has dropped her nap, much to my dismay. No, really, MUCH to my dismay. She is still taking a nap once every three or four days, but most of the time, we've got nothing in the rest department. I battled this for quite some time and then realized that I needed to go with the flow and let her change. I was just frustrating both of us by insisting that she lie in bed. Frankly, we've got enough battles to fight with Miss Addie right now (ah, two year olds!) and we need to just let it be and let her be.

I kept finding her sleeping in weird positions, obviously having collapsed in exhaustion mid tantrum.













So now the plan is to just let her stay in her room and have quiet time for two hours. I put her in her room, put up her baby gate and go tend to Graydon. After he's asleep, I come in and read to her for about half an hour. Then I leave. If she falls asleep, great. If not, that's ok. I usually walk into her room after her two hour "rest" time to find sheer chaos. But again, it's about the surrender here. Because really, it's not a big deal to clean up. She helps me put away all her messes and we both feel relaxed for having had a break.

Addie's room, post "nap". Note the stool on her bed (?!?)













I eventually had to take the crayons away for her "craft table" because everything in the room was getting "decorated", including the walls. Thank God for Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.















And as I'm writing this, the G man is currently howling in his crib as he "cries it out". I really really hate this process, but I know it's necessary for everyone's mental health. We waited until six months to do this with Addie, and I think it would have been a shorter process had we started it sooner.

My parenting philosophy after two kids is pretty much "whatever you want in the first three months, you can have!". You want me to hold you all night while you nurse every hour or so?(Graydon) Sure thing. You want a vacuum cleaner howling? (Graydon) You got it. You like your swing? Sleep in there all day, my child. (Addie) You want to sleep in your car seat every night (Addie). Absolutely.

After three months? Then it's time to learn how to cope without Mama being there 24/7. You see, Graydon too has to learn to surrender...in this case, to sleep and self soothing. It's an awful thing and it's not very restful for either of us. But he's ready. So now we just have to tough it out.

This helps. A lot. Love to see my kiddos cuddling together. Addie very thoughtfully "shared" her doll with Graydon.














And to finish a somewhat random "Good heavens I'm tired, is this even making sense" post, some random pictures from an afternoon walk a few weeks ago. Better luck posting next time, self!