Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Sigh....
OK. This is the last time I'll vent about Logan's toddler behavior for a little while. Today has been a mess. We went grocery shopping this morning & Logan didn't take his morning nap. He was pretty good at the store, just talking loudly, not screaming. We got home & I put him down for his nap. I got ready & got the house picked up because we were hosting playgroup this afternoon.

After an hour & a half...he didn't sleep.

I made his lunch & we played for a little bit while we waited for all of the kids to come over. In the beginning, things were going pretty well. Then the snacks came out. Logan immediately tries to steal the other kids' snacks, even though he's hanging on to his cup of crackers. This happens at every function we go to. He even tries to steal snacks when he's not hungry, like today. He'll grab crackers from another kid, pretend that he's going to eat it, throws it on the floor & goes back to steal more food. It drives me nuts constantly telling him, "don't take so & so's snacks, you have your own", which immediately makes him mad & he screams at me.

After telling him not to steal snacks (or sippy cups) a million times & trying to distract him with toys, the next battle is not throwing toys. This is something we've been working on a whole lot. However, my efforts were futile as he threw toys & ended up clobbering one kid in the head. He did this a few more times after the incident, which landed him in time-out.

Now that playgroup is over, I put him down for another nap (which would actually be his first & only nap of the day). Since it's 5 pm, I think it's more of an early bed time. I'll make him some dinner when he wakes up, but he's going right back down.

I know his inconsistent sleeping schedule is only making things worse. What's frustrating is that he used to be a great sleeper, always on schedule. 10 am & 2 pm for naps & 8 pm for bedtime, respectively. Even though I've attempted maintaining that consistency, he's fighting it. I put him down, he won't sleep. I leave him there for an hour, he won't sleep. He hasn't been going to bed until 9 or 10 pm some nights. I know he's most likely transitioning to one nap a day, but really, sleep at some point already!

Again, I keep reminding myself. It's just a phase. Hopefully it's a short one.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

OK, Are Amelia & Logan twins? Because day after day, I read your blog and nod my head in complete agreement with you. And I wonder what your solutions are and if they work (so I try time out, scolding, etc.) Amelia laughs, literally LAUGHS in my face when I scold her!

She's been going to preschool two days a week and that has done wonders with her habit of stealing food from others. The first few weeks were a nightmare, the teachers said she was awful about it and didn't want to work with a group. Now she's much better and even takes a 1 hour nap during the group naptime. But she still fights me in every other area, including all that dang throwing! AGH!!

Tonia said...

Rece has always been an inconsistent sleeper...ALWAYS!! But now he is on a decent schedule, but I have learned that it is better to let him take the lead with naps. He goes down anytime between noon and 3 depending on how the day goes. Bedtime is always at 8 but he always talks for at least an hour. It is just him, I figure as long as he is in bed then I don't care. I don't want to think of what this will be like once he is in a toddler bed! AAAHHHHH.

I don't want to scare you, but Rece still throws things including food. We are working very hard to control this a little more but it is tough and it has been going on for 9months+. We have tried just about every imaginable punishment for a 2 year old. Good luck in all that you try. If you find something that works let me know :)