Daytime Highs, Sleepytime Woes

The Good:
The past few days, the weather has been so nice out!  Pearce LOVES being outside no matter how hot or how cold...makes it hard on Mommy because I don't particularly like either extreme.  On Sunday, Chris and I took Pearce to the park and we had so much fun watching him play and make new friends.  Pearce has no problem going up to kids, no matter the age, and asking them to play with him.  He played by himself for a while and then made his way to the sand pit where several kids were playing, including an older girl who was 13.  He walked right over, sat down and started talking away.  Chris and I watched from a distance and saw the 13 year old girl, who we later found out was named Lena, talk to Pearce and then Pearce asked her to take his shoes and socks off, which she did.  We couldn't hear what they were talking about, but we could tell she was soooo sweet to Pearce and the 3 other younger kids sitting in the sand pit with her.  She buried all of their feet in the sand, built sand castles with them, and they just had the best time together.  After about 30 mins, Lena had to leave.  I went over and told her we had been watching from a distance and that we were so impressed with how sweet she was to all the little kids.  She just smiled and said she loves little kids and loved helping Pearce :)  Pearce played and played for a while longer and then we decided to go get ice cream with Pearce's Baskin Robbins gift card from his birthday.  I got him a giant ice cream cone....waffle cone with two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream, with sprinkles, of course!  He was in Heaven!

On Monday, our playgroup met at Austin Science and Nature Center.  The weather, was once again, beautiful!  I had never been here before, but had heard great things about it, so I was excited to explore with Pearce!  We met our friends at the Dino Pit first.  The Dino Pit is a huge sand pit with dinosaur fossils.  The kids had fun burying them in sand, uncovering them, and digging holes.  They played there for a long time and then we decided to walk around the rest of the center to see what we could see.  Pearce, Gunnar, and Boden latched on to each other, so it was fun watching them calling each other's names, walking together, and just acting silly together.  We walked the trails and looked at the animals.  It was really a fun place to go to be outside and explore.  Can't wait to go back!

  
The Bad:
So it has been a little over a week since BBs went bye bye.  He doesn't ask for them anymore or cry for them anymore, which is great!  He does great in the car and doesn't ask for them in the car, either.  BUT, his sleeping has definitely gone downhill, like way, way, WAY, downhill since we got rid of them.  The days of me rocking him, singing to him, and putting him in bed in less than 10 minutes are LONG gone.  The days of him staying in his bed are LONG gone.   The days of him feeling safe and comforted in his room are LONG gone.  He now likes for me to tell him stories, which is fine, but it's always "Just one more story, Mommy, I promise..."  After I would tell him a million and one stories about him being a baby, or about a Razorback, or about our day, it would be time to try to put him in bed.  He would usually start crying at this point and I would have to start the negotiations.  When we first took BBs away, he started wanting his night light on, ok, that's fine.  Then he didn't want his sound machine on, ok that's fine, too.  Then he started wanting us to leave his door open.  All of these changes were in the span of a week.  When I started asking him what was wrong and why he wanted the light on, door open, sound off, he said it's because he doesn't want to be by himself.  He wants the door open so that he can see us.  He wants his sound machine off so that he can hear us.  He said he's afraid monsters and snakes are going to come in his room.  Chris and I said we have to be patient with Pearce because BBs obviously had the magical power to make everything ok, and now that he doesn't have them, he has to adjust.  We agreed to leave the door open, but then he started getting out of bed.  One night, he did not go to sleep until 11:00 because he kept getting out of bed.  Chris even went in and said that's it, the door is going to be closed, but then Pearce took off his door knob guard thingy and still came out!  Finally Chris made a deal with him and said, either the door is closed and night light on, or door stays open and night light off, BUT, you have to stay in your bed and when you fall asleep, we will close the door.  I think Pearce liked having a choice because he chose for the door to stay open (until he fell asleep) and night light off.  I was worried he would still get out of bed and that I wouldn't be able to do housework because he would hear me, but he went right to sleep.  Before I went to bed, I closed his door.  Then when Pearce told us the next night that he didn't want to be by himself and that he was scared, Chris told him that Fred (from Scooby Doo) had set traps all around the house and that no monsters or snakes can get in the house.  Pearce liked that story.  Pearce was sleeping with his Toy Story dolls, but they started not helping him, so Chris gave him his Simba lion and told him that Simba would protect him while he was in his bed.  Pearce loved this, too!  So, now Pearce sleeps with Simba.  I finally feel like we have a new "normal" for night time sleeping.  I now tell him I will tell him one story, read one book, and sing one song.  I make sure to tell him this is the LAST one and when I am finished with the book, story, or song, we are going to get in bed and say our prayers.  I don't give in when he says "Just one more Mommy, I promise..."  Usually, he will cry when it's time to get in bed, but I just tell him it's night night time now.  Then we say our prayers.  Usually, he wants me to say a prayer for him and I always pray for him to have sweet dreams.  Sometimes, Pearce will say a prayer for Nay Nay and Charlotte.  Then I tell him that Fred has set the traps and nothing bad can come into his room.  Simba is going to protect him and make sure he has sweet dreams.  Then I ask him if he wants the door open and night light off, or door closed and night light on.  He always says door open, night light off.  He usually tells me to tell him that I will come check on him, so now I add that in.  I give him a kiss and start to leave.  Usually, he will start crying and tell me not to leave.  I say, "Pearce, I'm going to give you one more kiss, and then I'm going to leave your room.  I will check on you later."  He usually cries again, but surprisingly (for the past few days) he stays in his bed and doesn't come out after me.  We will hear him talk to Simba for a good while before eventually falling asleep.  After he goes to sleep, I close his door for the rest of the night.  Because the whole "sleep" process is longer, I try to start earlier whether it's for nap or nighttime.  Just writing this out was exhausting....imagine living this whole process!  Whenever I heard my friends talk about the exhausting process of bedtime, I always thought to myself "Thank goodness that's not me!"  I had to eat those words big time.  At least I feel like we have made a new routine that works for us and for Pearce.  It does take longer and have more steps, but we are firm with what we have come up with and Pearce gets it, for the most part....just took us a while to figure it all out!