Sunday, October 21, 2007

Weekend Update

Another busy, yet accomplishment-free weekend. It seems like Lehr and I have so many 'to-do's around the house these days, yet when the weekend comes, it's all about downtime with the kids. Not that it's a bad thing, but the house definitely suffers!

Friday night we ordered pizza and ate on the back deck, which Eli loved. He kept saying, "Biiiiig. Pee-tah." (BIG pizza) Then we went back to Target to try and find a costume that Eli felt a connection with, but we left empty-handed. He showed the most interest in a monkey costume, but after wearing it for about two minutes, he wanted out. Now.

On Saturday we went to Cooper's house to meet his baby sister, Finley. On the ride over, Eli kept repeating, "Happ. Burt-day. Pin-ley.... Cooper tiss-sir." (Happy Birthday, Finley. Cooper's sister.) He didn't care much about seeing her when we arrived however. He had free reign over Cooper's toys for the first 30 minutes or so, as Cooper was not home. After Eli's nap, we all went down to the Little 5 Points parade, an annual tradition for us. Luckily Eli is still not phased by 'scary' costumes, as there were plenty. We were concerned the loud noises coming from the motorcycles ('choppers') would frighten him, as loud noises do these days, but he was fine. Eli especially enjoyed the bands, which featured tuba, trombones, drums, and trumpets (all of which Eli can say). He also liked seeing the horses.

Maddux continued her nap strike until Sunday afternoon. For the last three weeks now, she refuses to nap longer than 40 minutes. She'll nap 20 or 30 sometimes, but just when you think she's going to break her cycle, in the 39th minute when you're patting yourself on the back, she wakes up. She will go down fine, but she will not stay asleep. After church on Sunday, she napped for two full hours. Hallelujah!!

Speaking of church, Lehr and I were last minute replacements for Eli's classroom (the 2-3 year olds). Wow. That is a busy classroom. And at the 1 1/2 hour mark it becomes the scary classroom. Combine the need for lunches and naps and we found ourselves with twelve unhappy kids at 12:15! Luckily the 'scary' portion only lasted five minutes or so. The rest of the time was chaotic and challenging, but overall not too bad. Eli liked having us in the room, but it made him a bit more aggressive than usual. I didn't see him hit or push any kids, but he felt like any toy was rightfully his as long as he wanted it, so I saw a lot of taking, which I'm told he normally doesn't do. Also, Eli really enjoys the snacks. We had goldfish today, which he only gets at church. He finished his and found some others that had been left behind by his classmates. I think he handed me three different (empty) cups throughout the snack time, all finished by him. That was not a behavior brought on by our presence; Eli often eats the leftovers when other parents are teaching too.

We finished the weekend with a hike at Sope Creek. Eli has been much more interested in hiking recently, and it was absolutely gorgeous weather in Atlanta today, so after his nap we tackled the trails. Eli actually hiked all the way to the creek without any assistance! After the excitement of throwing rocks and sticks in the water, however, he rode on Lehr's shoulders for half of the return trip. Maddux, as usual, slept through most of the hike.

1 comment:

Stephan & Mary said...

Wow! I can so relate to the nap strike! It must be the age. Rebekah has been doing the same thing for nearly a week. Stephan has convinced me that we need to persevere and let her cry. We go in after 20 minutes and comfort (and again, and again). We've had some success, in that she's had some good naps, but mostly once she wakes she stays awake. This evening she did fall back to sleep - after she rolled on her tummy!