We had a little bit of a scary experience today. I was cleaning out the storage room and Little Jon came up behind me and tried to grab a jar of baby food. It was pretty high for him so it fell... On his face and then dropped to the ground and shattered. He got a pretty nice bruise on his face. The best part was cleaning up all the applesauce covered glass on the uneven ground that is our basement.
I did finish organizing our storage room so now our house has been completely spring cleaned! You can't go anywhere in my house and have it not be organized and me know where everything is! I'm pretty excited tomorrow I will clean out the fireplace and then I will really be done!
I am really struggling with bed time right now. Tonight after dinner and baths usually I would do the dishes and clean up the kitchen but tonight I thought I would play with the kids instead give them some good attention and then maybe bed time would go more smoothly. I knew that tonight was Jonathan's big night for finals and he would be up late so I needed to take care of bed time myself. We got home and I put Nathaniel down and then watched tv with Little Jon for a little bit to make sure Nathaniel was really asleep before I took Little Jon in. Little Jon seemed tired so I tried to take him to his bed but he was really mad, maybe that should've been my first sign. Maybe I should've kept him up a little longer but his nap was early so I figured he should be tired. I put him in bed and laid down with him however he started to throw off all of his pillows, spit in my face and hit me. He refused to stay laying down in his bed to so after everything I could think of (I mean this kid didn't even protest when I told him I was leaving, which is weird for him) I reluctantly went and asked Jonathan for help. I felt awful because I knew he was working on a huge final but I didn't know what else to do, nothing I was doing was going to work. Joanna went in and within 5 minutes had him in his room quiet, probably asleep. I feel like part oft eh problem is when Little Jon isn't listening I go get Jonathan which just teaches him that Jonathan is the final word but I don't know what else to do. Do I just spend an hour repeatedly putting him back in bed? I really wish I was better at this. It makes me really mad that I can't do the bedtime routine successfully. I wonder if because Jonathan is gone during the day whenever he is home and spending time with them, like end time, they want to optimize their time with them and not make him mad but because I am with them all day it's nothing special, I don't know. Any suggestions are welcome I feel totally lost.
SLY
Argh! I'm so grumpy. I read this post several days ago and dad and I discussed it and then I wrote a comment. Then when I come in today, I see that the comment never got saved! Grrrrr! I must not have completed the posting (proved I'm not a robot or something)
ReplyDeleteWell, what I had said was how sorry I was that bedtime is so hard. I always found it the hardest time of the day and it always came when I was worn thin at the end of the day. Dad and I spoke of the fact that we don't think it is a respect issue. You do so well with LJ all day and he responds well. We wonder if it is just that he SO loves his time with his dad that he is becoming a little beast so that he will get it. If it really only takes 5-10 minutes or so when Jonathan does bedtime, then maybe he should do bedtime for you for a while. It will help fill LJ's need, give you a break, and make it so when you start doing bedtime again, LJ will be excited to have you do it.
Another thought was that if you have to go get Jonathan because LJ is being a stinker, you keep doing the bedtime with Jonathan there to help LJ know it's serious and to help him not be mean to you. (Just do bedtime together) That way, LJ sees that you guys are a team and he needs to treat you as a team.
Anyway, just a few random thoughts. (the first post was much better crafted!) Hang in there. It really does get better! And once LJ gets better at bedtime, he will actually make it easier with the younger ones. So you won't have this bad of a battle with each one.