naps

This week has been a complete disaster from a time management standpoint. Partially due to my usage of my free time, but in a large part because the boys' nap schedules have gone seriously awry. Out of 10 days thus far in February, only 4 of them have contained good naps.

Basically, about a week ago the boys started back up with the hours of maniacal play in their room before finally consenting to fall asleep after several episodes of being yelled at. This sounds good, because it means they're upstairs for a good long time ... but I never know how long, and I'm always listening for what they're up to, which means I can never settle down and actually get anything accomplished. After the first few days of this, I pushed naps back by a couple of hours, which helped a little. So now I'm trying a more permissive approach. I give them an hour or so to get it out of their system, then go up and remind them that it's time for sleeping. I tell them that they can take another half-hour to settle down, but then I expect to hear them sleeping for at least two hours. I think something in the concrete time-frame, coupled with the chance to play together by themselves without being yelled at, is helping. I hope so! A few more days of these shenanigans and the house may actually fall apart!