It's been a whirlwind day around here. We had two playdates today - one this morning, and another this afternoon. The boys had fun at both, but boy, did it make for a hectic day. We have music class tomorrow, but then nothing else, so it'll be nice to have a quieter day.
Dante is still giving us trouble about sleeping. Ugh. The ONE thing we knew we could count on for the past 20 months was the fact that we could put him down in his crib wide awake, and he'd happily snuggle up and go to sleep, and sleep really well. Clearly, those days are gone.
He fights us at naptime, and he fights us at bedtime. I had to sit with him for a good 20 minutes tonight to get him settled down enough to go to sleep. He was awake when I put him in the crib, though, which was good, because I do NOT want to start a habit of having to rock him to sleep - especially since he's pushing 30 pounds and is pretty darn heavy to hold!
It's a pretty frustrating situation, though, and I'm still hoping that it's just a phase he's going through (one that will pass quickly), but I'm no longer entirely convinced that that's the case. Only time will tell....
There is the theory - suggested by Mom - that he's going through a major growth spurt, which could be affecting his sleep. I'm definitely thinking this is a real possibility, given that he moved from a size 6 1/2 shoe to a size 7 shoe in roughly three weeks, so he is clearly doing some serious growing!
Thank god for hand-me-downs, too, because when we realized he had already outgrown the size 6 1/2 sneakers, we just went back to Gabe's closet and found a pair of size 7s - no shopping necessary. Dante loves his new shoes, too. When I dropped him off at the gym daycare the other day, he just kept pointing down to his shoes and saying "new shoes! new shoes! new shoes!"
The boy is an absolute parrot now. Everything we say, he says. And of course he says EVERYTHING that Gabe says, and does everything that Gabe does. It's gotten to the point where he'll literally follow Gabe around the house waiting to see what Gabe is going to do, so that he can do it, too.
And at dinner last night, Gabe said he didn't want his mashed potatoes, so Dante pushed his plate away and said he didn't want his mashed potatoes. For the record, both of them LOVE mashed potatoes. Gabe sulked at the table, resting his chin in his hand, so Dante sulked at the table, resting his chin in his hand. It's pretty amazing to watch.
It finally occurred to me why they didn't want to eat much last night, though. I gave them their afternoon snack a little too late, and they were both really hungry, and ended up eating two bananas each, a smoothie, and a few mini pumpkin muffins. From now on I'll make sure we have snack earlier in the afternoon.
So Dante had a few mornings last week where he pulled his 5am-wakeup routine, and as we usually do, we tried to get him to go back to sleep in our bed, but as usual, he just bounced around and kept us awake. But despite my grumpiness at being woken up so early, he did make me laugh one of those mornings. We have a skylight right above our bed, and since it was so ridiculously early, it was still dark, and you could still see some stars. So in the middle of his bouncing about in the bed, Dante rolled over and looked up at the sky and gasped "Wowwwwwwww! Stars!" Now we just have to get him to understand that if there are stars in the sky, that means it's TOO EARLY to be awake!
Dante is now calling Gabe "Dabe." It's really cute to hear him say it. And one day it sounded like he actually made the hard "g" sound and said "Gabe" properly, and Gabe got very annoyed and said "No, Dante. It's Dabe!"
Gabe has a few cars from the Cars movie, and one of them is named Doc Hudson. The other day he kept asking me where "duck hugs" was, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was talking about, and then I realized he was asking for Doc Hudson. But now, no matter how many times I've told him it's "Doc Hudson," he still calls him "Duck Hugs."
I went out to my first Book Club meeting last Friday night, and it was fabulous. We did talk about the book - a little bit, at least. But mostly we just gabbed and snacked and drank wine. A very nice night out - and a good excuse to read something every month that's not running or triathlon-related!
It was tough getting out the door, though. Gabe was literally clinging to me and crying "No, Mommy. Don't go out with your friends! I want you to stay here!" I peeled him off, though, and by the time I got out to the car, I could hear that Scott already had Gabe distracted and laughing, so all was well.
And Dante, meanwhile, was practically oblivious to the fact that I was leaving. He was just sitting at the table shoveling his food in his mouth. He also, earlier that day, told me I have a "silly face." I think coming from him that was a compliment : )
One day last week when I was trying to get Dante to nap, and I put him in Gabe's bed, to see if that would help, and when I left the room, he was laying there reading one of Gabe's books, and I almost started crying thinking about how big he looked.
And I think I wrote a few weeks ago about how Dante finally said "I love you" to me. That was definitely a pretty awesome moment, but it has since been overshadowed by one that happened last week. Gabe and Dante were doing their usual 'run up and down the hallway chasing each other and yelling' routine after dinner, and at one point they both collapsed on the floor giggling, and completely spontaneously, Gabe said "I love you, Dante."
Definitely, definitely one of my most gratifying and rewarding parenting moments EVER!
And earlier this week, Dante woke up but was just playing in his crib for a little while, and Gabe went in his room and they had a nice little chat. It was so cute to hear Gabe say "Good morning, Dante. Here's a car for you. Can you come out and play with me?"
They really do love each other.
Question? Do you have stuff in Dante's bed for him to play with? It is really important that he learn to amuse himself until he falls asleep, but you are right, he needs to be reinforced that he goes to sleep by himself. You have always struck me as a mom who gotz it going on :-) Your mom must be a pretty smart lady :-D
Posted by: Wes | February 06, 2008 at 08:01 AM