Sleeping Woes and Swimming Highs
Lucas is going through another phase where he doesn’t want to nap, and so far, no amount of coaxing, spellcasting, or shouting is working.
Not last night, but the night before, he woke at 2 am and wouldn’t go back to sleep until 4:45 am. Although we each put him back to bed several times, we checked on him later and found him in his room or in the bathroom playing with the light on. This is rather terrifying because I don’t like the idea of him wandering around the house (or worse—the backyard) in the night while his parents sleep blissfully unaware. It makes me wish we had an alarm. Anyway, this whole staying-awake-to-play-in-the-middle-of-the-frigging-night thing was infuriating and exhausting. Let’s just say, neither Ian nor I is a particularly good parent when deprived of sleep and faced with an obnoxious and defiant four-year-old.
What’s just got me boggled is how the kid managed NOT to nap the next day (yesterday). Generally, I would say I don’t know if I really believe in that “overtired and therefore cannot sleep” thing other parents talk about, but we sure experienced something like it yesterday. Fortunately, when we put Lucas down for the night last night, he slept solidly from 8 pm to 6:30 am, then joined us in our bed in the morning for another hour’s sleep, sans the usual wiggles. Phew! Thank heavens, for if it had gone otherwise, I might have had to confess infanticide.
The swimming lessons are going well!
Something clicked on Monday, however. I think it was the fact that Jackson (a friend from preschool) is an awesome swimmer, and Ripley (another friend from school) was at the pool showing off how well she can swim underwater to do handstands. Lucas tried experimenting with putting his face underwater, and then his whole head. When he received attaboys from his friends, their parents, and their younger siblings (Ellen and Roco), Lucas just couldn’t stop going underwater. It was perfect. I watched the fear of it just melt away from him. Then he started jumping into the pool from the edge. It’s the 3-foot deep pool that we’re swimming in, so he can stand on tiptoes the whole time, but the point is he’s getting over his fear of the water and showing off to his buddies: “Ripley, Ripley, watch me! Watch what I can do.” Ripley isn’t too impressed, being a better swimmer than Lucas, but with some coaching from her mom, she has learned to be supportive of Lucas’s efforts.
So anyway, that’s been $60 well spent. If I can scrounge up another $60, I’ll sign up for another session. But we’ll have to wait for the money fairy to arrive.
Anyway, Lucas’s preschool teacher says, “Maybe he’s experiencing an inner change.”
June 8, 2006 at 6:03 pm
You didn’t ask for a solution for the sleeping issue, so I won’t try to offer one.
I will say, however, that the post makes me smile. Such a typical war you’re fighting right now, you know? Hang in there, from all reports you’re good parents and will most likely survive this one. And move on to the next. Your job is to teach him to be an intelligent, independant, creative person. Woe is you, you’re succeeding. =^)
June 8, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Would your sleep solution be to knock him over the head with a brick, by chance? Because if that was it, I’ve already thought about it.
😉
Seriously, thanks for the confidence. Sometimes I just feel beaten by his wily ways. It’s dawning on me that I have no real means of making him do anything at all, and that’s only going to become more and more true as he gets older. I guess I have to hope that he loves us enough to comply at least some of the time.
June 8, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Nope, the bricks just make ’em mad. Like a grizzly bear and a squirrel gun, it’s just a bad idea.
And c’mon, how could he not love you two?