This probably sounds strange, but we are actually better off now that Matthew has dropped his nap. Once again, we have Ana to thank for making this transition easy on everyone by convincing him that quiet time in his room is a good thing. He's done amazingly well, provided we let him set the timer before we start. He seems very anxious that we should set the timer for "a long time!" and we are happy to oblige. I wonder how long it will take him to figure out that in this case, bigger is not necessarily better. For now, we are getting 90 minutes out of this arrangement which is way better than I imagined. In addition, we get less resistance at bed time and a longer night's sleep. What's not to love? This rather pathetic photo was taken the day quiet time happened late after swimming lessons and a gymnastics birthday party. The most amazing thing is that you can tell he'd rather be out of his room but he has obediently remained within the boundaries, passing out right in his doorway. Quiet time has opened up a large chunk of unsupervised time for Mr. Matthew. We do try to surreptitiously peek in to see what he's up to but he is on his own for a substantial period of time. I remember quiet time as being boring. One summer, when I was 5 or 6, I entertained myself during quiet time by sharpening my grandfather's pencils down to unusable stubs (we were visiting during the summer and I slept in my grandfather's study). Matthew seems cut from a similar cloth. During his second or third day in quiet time, he became quite distressed after he unscrewed a light bulb and couldn't put it back in. We may need to do some additional child proofing...
No comments:
Post a Comment