Routines
The usual morning:
- Rick wakes M up, he comes to my bed to watch cartoons for a bit
- Rick gives him a “train ride” downstairs (a piggy back)
- dry cereal with cartoons in the livingroom while we get ready/get his lunch
- Mommy or Daddy helps him get dressed (even though we know he can do this mostly on his own, he insists on help lately – likely a little regression due to Ella’s arrival we figure)
- sometimes more food – usually cereal with milk at the kitchen table
- lately he’s been saying “I don’t want to go to schooool” followed by a big struggle to get his coat and boots on for him – he insists we do it for him
The usual bedtime:
- Marshall insists on a “train ride” up the stairs … I have been telling him that he’s getting too big for this and Daddy’s going to hurt his back.
- we’ve been alternating bath nights with the kids
- then Marshall takes forever getting his jammies on … lots of jumping and running and squirming and goofy laughing etc.
- tooth brushing
- book or 2, depending on how late/how much trouble he’s giving us 
- then “I’m feeling a little bit snacky!” and one of us gets him a snack, which is usually a grape or 2, or maybe some peppers depending on what we feel he was lacking in his diet that day
- lately he has started wanting to brush his teeth a 2nd time (because he had a snack)
- then “I don’t want to sleep aloooone” and Rick’s cure for this has been to go get Bounce for him. She sits on his bed for all of 2 seconds and takes off but it satisfies him
- when Rick’s not available, I have refused to go get the cat. I tell him I will tell her to come up but that’s the best I can do.
- lately he’s been whining and calling me up a lot, so I started taking “payment” for each time he calls me up, I take one of his “friends” (stuffed animals) and agree to return them once he is on his way to sleep. This has cut down on the number of trips up and down the stairs.
Today:
- Marshall got up, got dressed (needed help with the socks only), told Daddy he was walking downstairs by himself today, sat down at the table and asked for waffles for breakfast
- He came upstairs to show me how he was dressed. He put his new hat on and is wearing 2 t-shirts (on Sunday he was wearing 3 t-shirts … layering is “in” apparently haha)
- “I don’t want to go to school”
- He came back downstairs on his own and put his black rubber boots on (ones he barely ever wore that we bought in the fall after losing his Thomas boots, and hasn’t worn since we got him new blue shark boots 6 weeks ago), and put his new Spiderman spring jacket on (received from the Easter Bunny but hasn’t wanted to wear until today) and was ready to go!
Kind of surprised us today. He was actually ready before Rick was!
Now, to shorten the bedtime routine…
lana is discussing.
lana 9:00 pm on April 20, 2010 Permalink
hmmmm..this sounds all too familiar..right down to the Spiderman coat!