A Picture

On the night of Zachariah's third birthday we threw away his paci's. It was a sad moment for him, and it took him well over 2.5 hours to fall asleep that night. But it has been over a week and he has done really great.

Well, except at nap time.

We have always had a bedtime routine that we follow. As he gets older we have tweaked it a bit, but for the most part it has stayed the same. Change into pj's, brush teeth, sit on the bed while dad reads a bible story, lay down and cuddle with mom and dad for a minute or two (which usually involves a bit of giggling), then we say our goodnight's and leave. The routine is something we all look forward to and I love that we have it. I think it helps him get in the mindset that sleep is coming. He knows what to expect when we start doing these things, and because he knows bedtime is coming he doesn't protest or argue about it.

I am realizing that we need to start doing the same thing with nap time. In the past we would change his diaper, tuck him in bed and leave. His paci would put him to sleep in no time. We never really needed a routine. But now it is very apparent that we need one. He has only napped once since we threw the paci's away. Once in nine days!

Help me Rhonda.

Anyway, to make a short story long, we have started a nap time routine in hopes of getting those coveted nap times back. Part of this nap time routine involves story time, and let me just say that I am loving it. Especially when Daniel is here. (He will generally schedule his lunch break so he can be home and eat with us, play with Z for a bit and then be able to be here to see him off to his nap. Is that not wonderful?) Because we both like to read to Z we split the reading up evenly. Z likes for Daniel to read his book(s) on the edge of the bed and he likes me to read laying on his pillow with him. :)

I don't know if this new nap time routine is going to help at all, but I sure do love reading with my two boys!