JDaniel has stopped taking naps. He would still take them if I wrestled him down and forced it, but then he would be up until ten o’clock chatting in his bed. So, we have stopped with naps.
He still needs to slow down in the afternoon and read, rest or play upstairs. We are calling this time “quiet time”. It isn’t always quiet and he spends a whole a lot of time wanting to know when the kitchen timer is going to beep. (When it beeps, he is released from being sequestered and can come downstairs.)
JDaniel sometimes sits at the top of the stairs and sings to see if I will do anything.
No, he is allowed to continue to sit at the top of the stairs. He just can’t come down the stairs.
When he does he is guided back upstairs and strongly reminded to stay upstairs or he will lose his snack.
(Snack is greatly desired in the afternoon at our house.)
Last week when he called down to ask if it were time and I replied that it wasn’t, his small voice muttered, “You have to be kidding.”
I suppressed a laugh. I knew the words he had just muttered where mine.
I wrote a few weeks ago about my words spreading to my son and here was a reminder that they had not only spread but had been planted in his memory.
When had I said those words? I couldn’t remember then and I still can’t.
I could hear his feet shuffling over my head as he moved from the hallway to his room almost in defeat.
I don’t think he thought the timer would ever go off.
One hour of time seems like a lifetime to pause from being with me to have time to play, read, or rest on your own to him. Yet we both need some “quiet time” even if it seems like a will never end for one of us.
Do you have a “quiet time” at your house in the afternoon?
