Seriously... do you ever have one of those days where your kid just plows you over? Today, DD woke up at 6:30 am and went to bed at 10:30 pm and besides a short nap she was NON-STOP the whole day. Not so much physically but it was like she has some secret classified mission that she HAD to accomplish today.

Just some examples for today:
-She spent 2 hours coloring EVERYTHING in a new coloring book. Then she went on to color her arms, legs, hands, and my arms and hands too. Oh, and made me color quite a bit too.
-We reread the same book I don't know how many times. Then we had to go through and say what every letter was in each word, what all the punctuation marks are, how they are used, and then sound out many of the words. Then she went through and found some words that "matched".
-Before going to bed she insisted that the curtains were open so she could see the "towers" (skyscrapers) and then we had a long list of family members we had to pray for.
-She built a number of nice mega-block structures all of which are tested to perfection by her sitting on them afterward.

I don't know, it's hard to put into words but she was just so intense today. It was just like you could see all the wheel cranking in her head. I'm tired... I'm BEYOND tired! I have a feeling something new is coming, I'm just not sure what.

How does everyone else survive these days? It certainly does not help that DH is gone on a business trip!!

Hang in there. It won't be long before she's having intense, driven days without needing your constant help. Once those motor skills kick in, and/or once she's reading well, she'll be going at it while you do your own thing.

When my kids were that age my relief was the ZOO with a girlfriend who had kids. The kids got lots of exercise and had fun and I talked to an adult. This helps alot. Hang in there it gets better.

This is my life too! DH works second shift and it makes me feel like a single mother. My DS is so exhausting, if I'm not entertaining him, he sits on the couch and says, "Fine, I guess I'll just sit here and do NOTHING!". I'm running out of things to do with him! I have a zoo membership and a membership to the local science museam that helps alot but it's not so easy to be on the go all of the time with a new baby. My husband skips out the door right after lunch and I throw my head down on the table, drink a strong cup of coffee, and my head starts to spin just thinking about being alone with these two boys for the next eight hours!

Well, I took out 7 books for plane ride and ds7 read 4 over weekend ugh so today I will buy some comic books, I can get more of them and they are lighter. Time for Kindle LOL

I dk what is more tiring though because I am way tired of trying to teach my other ds3 and 1/2 letter A !

Just want to say that my daughter will watch feature length movies. I know people don't recommend them for kids under 2, but most kids under 2 wouldn't sit through a movie anyway.

She can sit and watch a whole movie, laugh at the funny parts, ask pertainant questions, and give me a summary of it when it is over. I think she is ready for TV! She really enjoys it and it gives me a break.

She does not watch children's programing yet, though. I am just not sure what I like out there yet.

While I certainly am excited for her motor skills to catch up, you know what? I'm sure I'll probably be sad then and even miss these totally intense days. That's motherhood for you...

onthegomom the zoo is wonderful! I don't always have the energy for it (and for the tantrum when we leave) but yes, two thumbs up to the zoo!


Yes, I drink coffee everyday. I'm not sure how I'd survive otherwise!

PMc/10applesupontop- yep, I have to admit we let her watch TV sometimes. She likes superwhy also but her true love is Dora. If I'd let her she could easily watch it the entire day and no matter what we always have a tantrum when it's shut off. She got to watch two episodes yesterday because I was so tired! You can always measure my energy levels by how often she gets to watch Dora. She has picked up some words from it (and even some Chinese words from Kai Lan too that she watches much less). And she'll laugh at the jokes too and dance with the songs. She's a total addict.

traceyqns- we actually have a kindle. I haven't tried getting in children'S books on there.. have you tried that? I was actually just thinking about trying that the other day. It would make it so much easier for all the traveling that we do.

Good luck on teaching your DS3 the letters!

My little girl has been in loved with the tube since she was about 9 months old. We would put on a video here and there. At 9 months old she would sit in her chair and bounce along to baby einstein. She would laugh and talk back.

My girlfriend and my step-sister would always make a big deal how their kids did not like TV. They would act like their babies had already formed this holier-than-thou opinion about the subject. Hah! Flash forward about a year, and they get put in front of the TV just as much as my daughter if not more!

Of course, now they attribute my daughter's long attention span when it comes to movies to her practicing all this time. I think they would just die if I told them she regularly watches documentaries all the way through.

I'm a big fan of enrichment outside the house. Both of my sons have been in weekly playgroups since they were infants, and it's been a HUGE lifesaver. We also do music class, library class (almost always free), field trips, etc. Since DS2 is now two, I'm also going to be co-teacihng an early preschool co-op for him in the fall.

As DH put it the other day, "Having gifted children takes a LOT of energy!" My kids really don't want to just play around the house for more than a few hours a day. They're social, and so am I. We tend to go somewhere mid-morning most days of the week, and then enjoy our afternoons at home (until DS1's schedule intervenes!). I try to have one or two "just at home" days, but they would much rather be out discovering things with other kids.

I also swear by joining a sports club. I don't go more than an hour a few times a week, but the boys love the playcenters and get lots of social interaction with different toys, art, etc., and I can work out in peace and quiet!

Hanni (2yr3mo) just gave up naps. Like, *just* gave them up. A week ago, she was napping for 3 hours every afternoon. She went through several days of on-again-off-again, and now they are just gone. Poof.

The up-side? She is no longer awake until 10:30 p.m. wanting to talk. The down-side? My childcare bill is about to double, because I absolutely cannot care for this child for as many hours as she is now going to be awake.

Oh, and we went through a few days where the naps were gone but she hadn't sorted out the night-time sleep. She was awake from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. the night before last, nursing, talking, flopping, until I was hallucinating pink elephants. My favorite moment: "This is your earlobe, mama. Boing. Boing. Boing."

But last night! Ah! She slept for 11 hours straight! I'm so relieved I could cry. (Of course, she woke up at 5:45 saying, "When Hanni is older Hanni will use a sharp knife and cook artichokes and cut them with the sharp knife and put them in the pot and they will take one hour. And Hanni will build a new house for Hanni to live in. When I older."

AAA-hahahaha!!!! This is how I feel when the babysitter leaves!

So glad there are others here who understand what "intense" means.

3 hour naps?!? I wish I had experienced that one at least once. Even as an infant my child never napped and if on those rare occasions where she finally did collapse, it was never for more than an hour/hour and half tops. Now DD will be turning 4 and has been going to a school that has a required nap time. Bhaha ... good luck with that. Once in a blue moon DD will actually take a nap at school and this is with the teacher sitting on the floor patting her back. The funny/strange thing is I just picked her up from school and on the way home she exclaimed that she wants to go to the public school by our house. I questioned why and the response was because she won't have to nap. I think she is out of luck on that one. Might be time for me to feel out the teacher and see if they are pressuring her to nap. I made it abundantly clear that DD is not a napper but she has moved up in class over the summer and the new teacher might not have that information.

Oh and the positive side for the non-napper ... yes I actually said positive side ... is they have a longer night time sleep pattern. Not saying DD's is extreme but we have always had a full night time sleep pattern from her from age 4 months on. We even get an early night out of it all since her bedtime is 7:30. I'm not completely convinced she sleeps all the way through the night because on the few occasions that I've had to sleep with her when on trips she would sit up in bed around 2 am and quietly play for about an hour before going back to sleep, but the saving grace is she has always been able to entertain herself for long periods of time and has never gotten out of bed looking for someone else to entertain her. Knock on wood that stays the same.

I am in love with this place! I did not even know there was word for this. I just called her non-stop. She just never stops. My mother-in-law lives on the east coast and rarely gets to see us. I just do not know how to explain to her what I am going through. At the end of my day with her my brain feels like mush.

I will hear Gillian on the moniter talking about the most random things when she wakes up. The most recent bizarre conversation she was having with herself in the crib went like this:

"Butterflies eat nectar from the flowers. Caterpillars eat leaves. Caterpillars turn into butterflies. Tadpoles turn into fogs...or toads. Frog and toad are friends. Oh, no there is a bee in my nose. Get out, bee! I'll put the bee on the flower. Bees eat nectar, too. I am just eating my boogers. Ew, ear wax is yucky...Mommy, I'm awake!"

Thankfully she sleeps in late. But, that really sets the tone for the day, if you know what I mean. And, I think you all do!

I have a no-napper as well. It is also nice to know I was not the only one with a child who only napped for 45 minutes at a time.

Oh, and DD is sitting on the potty right now flipping through catalogs doing BM.

10 apples, my 27 month old reads on the toilet, too! Just like his brother and Daddy! DS1 used to spend HOURS on the potty studying his Thomas catalogs. When he was 4 he started reading the WSJ. We thought he was just imitating DH, but then one day at dinner he asked us what we thought about housing prices dropping. Pretty funny! Lucklly, DS2 is still a Dr. Seuesser. Today's BM was brought courtesy of "Hop on Pop." LOL

The rest of my afternoon looks positively restful since he just took a 3 hour nap. My fingers and toes are crossed that he doesn't drop it anytime soon. That's precious time for DS1 and me!

I wish DD would give up her nap! Her nap just means that she always ends up going to bed way later than she should, which makes her crankier in the morning. Days that she doesn't nap she actually sleep a lot more total hours and wakes up so much happier. But, before bedtime it can be horrible!

Oh, and we have a toilet reader. This is DD's book: http://www.amazon.com/Potty-Me-Lift-Flap-Instruction/dp/0689874235
We read that book ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, she wakes up in the middle of the night asking for it! But yeah, she's been on the potty for 1hr+ just reading that book over and over and over again.

And I agree, I really like having this board because at least there are other families out there that are dealing with this craziness!

I was reminded of this thread today....

DD was playing with her doll when she decided that her doll needed to go potty. So we grabbed a megablock that was laying nearby and put her doll on their to pee. She then asked for her favorite book and "read" to her doll on the potty. Some of it was just nonsense but she made sure to point out the daddy and the baby in the book and tell her doll all the animal names and what sounds they make. Also, she'd check every now and then to see if her doll had peed or not. I was just trying not to giggle while she was doing it, it was so cute!

Does anyone else's kid "read" books with nonsense syllables? Hanni will announce that she is going to read, then hold the book and say things like "Hongo sayo nayno" and "Psycho mango," then finish with "The end." It's hilarious!

This morning DD just started to do this! We had the The Gruffalo's Child out and she started pointing at the different words in title and saying some nonsense. Although, she might have said "child" but I wasn't sure. She did it for two more pages but then got bored and gave me the books so I could read it to her.

And another thing... it must be something about Sundays, they are always the worst days! Yesterday was... wow. Again, she only slept about 8 hours at night and it took FOREVER to get her to sleep despite the fact that we walked almost the entire day yesterday and she got to play with a ton of other little kids! We really tried our best to wear her out but had no luck at all.

That sounds so familiar! You know what DD was doing last night after the long day of walks and everything else we did? She was jumping on her bed after 10pm, giggling hysterically!

Everybody tells me that we just miss her tired window but it's so not like that, she's going non-stop the entire time. We actually wanted to fit in going to the Natural History museum yesterday but, unfortunately, we had a huge downpour and couldn't talk DD out in the stroller. I guess this is payback because my parents said I was the same way...

We had/have the same experience with DD and missing 'her window'. Guess what? The window must be sealed shut because she always has full energy when she goes to bed, unless she is sick. I learned early on that this is just DD but she accepted bed time and though full of energy would go to bed with no problems. We would hear her upstairs talking to her animals for a while before she did finally give in to sleep but I think she really needed quiet time before getting to that point.

AUGH!

I spoke too soon! Madame I-can-go-14-hours-and-not-be-cranky is suddenly crashing out for naps again.

Which means she's awake till 10:30 again.


What do the rest of you do? Should I really let this 2 year old set her own bedtime? Or should I continue uselessly enforcing 9:00 lights out, as I've been doing for months, uselessly? It's a dilemma.

Oh, that is so familiar. Does she read or at least look at books? Our policy was not to enforce lights out, but to enforce (earlier than 9) a staying in bed time; DS was pretty happy to comply provided he had a high enough stack of books. He had phases of wanting someone to come and lie down with him (sometimes very late, after he'd been reading for ever) at which point we'd usually do it, but on condition that he was lying still, not wriggling or playing. By the time he wanted that, he'd usually sleep quickly.

Very, very familiar!

We do a similar thing. I know that my LO has no idea how to rest and relax, in order to be able to go to sleep. Some children do this naturally. Mine don't. It took me ages to learn it myself, so I don't really expect that they would know it. But I consider it my job to help them figure it out and get a good nights sleep. I also know the futility of trying to force a child to sleep!

We do a similar thing to Colin's mum. First we have a rule about being calm and quiet from a certain time. This is harder to enforce, but I really believe that they will learn to do this themselves (eventually!) if I keep modeling it. So after they come out of the bath, we have very quiet music on, DH and I speak softly, The house is closed up and dark, etc. Then they have to be in bed by 7pm, but when they go to sleep is up to them. He's not reading himself yet, so sometimes he likes to look at pictures, or listen to story CD's or music (chose carefully!) Meditation CDS can be good for this. Often, like Colinsmum, my LO will ask for someone to pat him, and we are happy to do that if he is lieing still and has his eyes closed, so usually he will fall asleep very quickly then.

Of course sometimes this all goes out the window!

We've tried the quiet time too but that normally leads to all those jumping on the bed episodes that DD loves so much...

What has been working for us for the last couple of days at least (no clue how long our good luck will hold!) is that we've been having an enforced wake up time (at 7:30 am) and we take DD for a walk right before bed time. We're hoping to stretch this out for as much as it's worth!