Sunday, June 22, 2008

Routines and Sleep

Number one lesson learned during Week 1 of summer vacation - do not stray from routine bedtimes for more than a day or two. If you do, you run the risk of crazy, crabby kids. Last week was busy, especially for Alex. Monday - Great America, Tuesday - Sleepover by Grandma and Grandpa, Wednesday - Ducky's Birthday, Thursday - Start of summer school and Complete Meltdown, Saturday - Another Complete Meltdown and Sleepover at Jacob's, Sunday - Yet Another Complete Meltdown. Poor kid was so out of whack, we made him take a nap on Saturday and Sunday.

Thursday might be the worst day in my parenting history. Alex and Luke were at each other even worse than usual, the lawn service came so we couldn't go outside and Julia had a monster seizure in the middle of it all. Deep breath in, slow breath out, repeat. I thought Aubrey was going to make a run for it. But, she held on, the boys were bribed into a little bit of peace with a promise of a trip to visit the Hanus boys, Julia stopped seizing and went to dozing...we made it. Matt came home, got the vibe of the house and gave the kids bathes before dinner so we could put them all in bed by 7pm.

We did have fun at the Hanus', though. They have a four-wheeler (I rode with Alex after Cheryl did), a golf cart, baby chicks, a big play center...we definitely need to go back on a day when the kids are not crazy-tired.

Moral of the story - kids need sleep. You can skip sleep to have more fun for a little while, but if you do that too often, you ruin all the fun.

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