I've mentioned before that bed time has not been a good time lately. For a short time, Simon thought it was really novel and grownup to go "nigh nigh" by lying down on his pillow and having us tuck him in. Heck, he does it for pretend all of the time in the spare room. However, at this point, he absolutely hates going to bed.
It goes a little more smoothly at nap time, though that might be in part because it's only one of us who put him to bed. Today he protested, but for whatever reason, after letting him jump up and down and protest for a moment, he crashed.
The evenings are broken entirely. It used to be, we'd get him into pajamas (bath every other night), then sit on the couch with a little snack for about 40 minutes of Sesame Street on the DVR (we skip past the fairy school nonsense). After that, he would enthusiastically go up stairs, we'd brush teeth, read a few books, and he'd go to bed, all smiles. Now, part way into The Street, he starts to get restless. It leads to running around, or thrashing on the couch for our attention. In the good old days, this wind-down for him was also a chance for us to knock out a few games on our phones or read up on some news. No such luck anymore.
Simon will then protest going upstairs, and half of the time we end up carrying him up. He runs around and won't get his teeth brushed, and he won't sit with us to read books consistently. That part in particular is troublesome because he's doing so well at identifying things in books, taking a stab at new words, and such.
Then the lights go out and he completely flips out. He jumps around in bed and swings his arms around, at which point we leave the room. After allowing him to scream for literally a few dozen seconds, one of us goes back in and tucks him in, and it's done.
Overnights haven't been easy lately either. He seems to wake up a lot, and he's also peeing a lot more, pushing diapers to overflow at times. Diana speculates, and I agree, that he understands control already and is choosing not to let it go as much during the day. Hooray then if we have a head start on potty training, but sleeping through the night would be nice.
We're trying to decide now how to mix it up at night. We think that significant interactive play time after dinner is part of the key, especially afternoons like today where he couldn't go outside. We're going to reduce TV time as well. None of it may matter, in the end, because Simon is at the age where he's trying out tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. Basically, he's being a 2-year-old. It's frustrating for us, because a moment later he's the sweetest little boy you've ever seen.
These are the joys of parenthood. I wouldn't trade them for anything.
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