Still, we've found a way to get into summer mode. We've been way more active and social. I've ended the last two weekends feeling like I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. We've been to Rockies games and did our first family camping trip (only one night - easy peasy). The boys have been playing soccer on Saturday mornings. We've had family sleepovers with friends. The boys are becoming excellent bike riders (our neighbors are always awed by their bike riding skills, which I agree are quite impressive, thanks to the Strider balance bike). They had "splash days" at school in June and July, so I'd bring them in their swim trunks on their respective splash days and they would get to play outside with water toys, kiddie pools, etc. We've had our fair share of popsicles and I've set up the sprinkler a few times. The most challenging part of my day is the 15 minutes it takes me to chase down the boys to slather them with sunscreen. I've been enjoying our summer activities, but I WILL NOT miss having to put sunscreen on them every morning. It's like wrestling pigs, people.
The longer summer days are nice, but add a new level of challenge to our life. It's still light out at the time the boys should be sleeping (our sleep sweet spot is 8:00...if they are asleep by 8:00 p.m. or earlier, they typically sleep longer in the morning, wake up on the right side of the bed, and are fairly well-behaved and happy the next day). In order to have them asleep by 8:00, we need to have dinner no later than 6:30 so we can eat, clean up, bathe them if necessary, put on jammies, brush teeth, unwind, and read books before bed. It's tough to do that when the sun is still shining and the neighborhood is still buzzing with activity. It's tempting to let them run around outside to burn off a little more energy, and we got pretty lackadaisical about bedtime a few weeks ago. And then we paid for it. Nolan was waking up between 5 and 5:30. He would be clingy and whiny and generally full of misery until I finally put him down for his nap. Beck was aggressive and defiant. We thought we were raising terrible, no good, difficult little boys. We were all exhausted. I finally started to suspect they were just chronically overtired, and when we renewed our efforts to stick to an 8:00 bedtime, everything c-a-l-m-e-d the heck down. We pushed their bedtime this weekend due to a Rockies game on Saturday night, and they both took 3 hour naps yesterday, and then stayed up late again last night. I need to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand! Also, I've stopped pushing Beck to nap because he ends up staying up late if he takes a nap. If he doesn't nap, he goes to bed without a struggle by 8:00 (sometimes 7:30), but he's pretty...let's say "irritable" from about 4:00 p.m. on.
Ahhh, summer. Like the rest of life with two little boys, it's a challenge, but I'm trying to savor and not take for granted the dirty fingernails, sweaty boys (before they actually stink), blazing sun, outside time, fresh air, and lazy chaos.
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| Sometimes you just need to chill on the couch. |
