A few things happen when my children spend a lot of time with my in-laws. One is that Spencer becomes unable to mention my FIL without discussing the new toy he will be getting the NEXT time he sees them. The second thing, apparently, is that Henry becomes unable to nap without someone sleeping next to him. Since he's still sleeping in a crib, you can see why this is an issue. I have taken to laying down with him in Spencer's bed until he's asleep, but he doesn't get a long enough nap that way because he wakes up a lot usually, and when he's not where he normally is he just gets up. But otherwise he won't nap on the weekends at all, unless we decide to go somewhere. Then approximately 90 seconds into the 5 minute drive, he's asleep.
This is not to sound ungrateful; I really am happy they are so willing to take care of the kids for us when we need them. But regular people understand that routines are there for a reason? I should be glad something works for them so they are getting sleep. Right? Right? Bueller?
Anyhow, don't mind me. I'm up past my bedtime and I'm not feeling sleepy. Maybe a little irritable. Worn, but a bit of insomnia is taking over and it's either this or starting a new book (which likely would mean I'd be up for two hours until I finished it. I didn't promise it would be a *good* book). I got a few things done I had been meaning to - I picked up canning supplies from Walmart to try
this recipe, and new rechargeable batteries for the Wii since Spencer started playing at a friend's house and now wants to play at home, and a new boombox (ha!) for the kids' room because the CD player in there only plays two songs before messing up. The only way to keep any music on is to put a single song on repeat, so they usually sleep all night to the first track of Jack Johnson. I love Jack Johnson, but even I have had enough. Due to random gift cards, I managed to spend under $10 for the lot of it!
Laundry still not done. Work I brought home, still in the car. Made breakfast for dinner - eggs scrambled with spinach and mushrooms and cheese, fried potatoes, bacon, toast. Henry yelled for MORE of my toast (mooor! mooor!) so he got three pieces (mine, his and part of Daddy's) but he at least ate a mouthful of eggs/spinach before rejecting the rest of it. One day I will be able to stop putting handfuls of spinach in everything. Good thing I love spinach.
Tonight I made a list of all of Henry's words. 21. I keep saying that I don't worry about his lack of words because he's adding new ones, and I keep making excuses for his lack of speech because his brother talks so godforsaken much. It's a lie. I'm concerned. He's so alert, and understands 99% of anything we say to him, directions we give him, questions we ask him. But words ... he babbles a little, but mostly he's content to stare out the window or hum along with music in the car, and watch people and other kids at the mall. He said "baby" today while pointing at a picture of a friend's kid and I didn't know he knew how to say it. Yesterday he pointed at the moon and said "moon". I know I shouldn't be concerned, that all children go at their own pace. Spencer was so far ahead of the curve that I'm not use to worrying about these things. He had full sentences at 18 months and I'm still pleading with Henry to say Daddy.
Okay, I'm going to pretend to sleep until hopefully I get there. Toodles!
**update: I went in to check if No 1 was still sleeping in the top bunk and ended up waking up No 2. He refused to go back to sleep and I ended up sleeping with him on the bottom bunk where he stayed up much of the night, tried to kick me off the bed when he did sleep, cried if I put him back in his bed and overall didn't let me sleep at all. It was marvelous.
