What do you do when your children refuse to go to sleep? For the past several weeks, after we put the kids to bed, Daniel decides he doesn't want to be in his room alone so he comes downstairs and lays down in the doorway between the front room of the house and the kitchen. Sometimes he falls asleep there, sometimes not. When we go up to bed, we take him back upstairs, put him in his bed and he goes to sleep. Then sometime between 5:30am and 7am he finds his way into our room - and into our bed.
Well, last night my wonderful husband took the children upstairs and put them to bed (they usually do better about going to bed when he takes them). Before he
ws even back downstairs, Emma was screaming and crying because she "didn't want go night night either." Daniel got up from his bed and went into her room and they played for awhile. Darrell finally went upstairs and put them in their respective beds. They would not go to sleep! Finally, at 11:00, I went upstairs and told them they needed to get some rest and go to sleep. Emma stayed in her bed but still took awhile to go to sleep. I went into our bedroom to put away the clean clothes, hoping that having a parent upstairs would be enough to keep Daniel in his bed; and therefore in his room. Not so! He got out of the bed, went into Emma's room and tried to get her to play with him. She would tell him, "No, Dan-l, you need to go to bed." I went in and gently helped him back to bed. By the time I got back into our room, he was out of the bed and either heading downstairs, or just standing in his doorway. I popped him on the bottom and put him back in the bed, crying for his daddy. This continued constantly for well over half an hour! It didn't matter if I left the hall light on or off, or if I left his door open or closed. You could tell by looking at him that he was exhausted, he just would not go to bed! I'm not sure if he finally wore himself out, or if he decided I was more stubborn; all I know is that he finally stayed in the bed and fell asleep. I hoped that since he didn't fall asleep until after 11:30, he would stay in his bed all night until time to get up for school. But to no avail, he was in our room about 6:15am again this morning.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to get kids to go to bed, go to sleep, or stay in their bed until mommy or daddy comes to get them up, we'd be glad to hear them!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Ok, so this past Saturday we went with friends to Southern Belle Farm (McDonough GA) for our annual pumpkin patch trip. We arrived about 10am and although it wasn't exactly warm (very cool and windy), at least it wasn't as muddy as I was afraid it would be. By the time we left the weather was quite pleasant. There really weren't any pumpkins to speak of, but I think everyone enjoyed the day anyway. Darrell took the kids through the big corn maze - he said Emma wasn't happy unless she was the leader (so what's new?). We took a hayride around the farm that turned out to be educational as well. We learned about the best time to pick cotton, how sunflowers will turn and face the sun as they grow, etc.
The kids got to ride a pony for the first time and they both loved it. I've been trying to get Daniel into a hippotherapy program, but I wasn't sure how he would react to a real horse. I guess I don't need to worry about that now.
