Thursday, December 17, 2009

Baby Steps


Months ago I blogged about a clock that we purchased in hopes of getting Monkey to let us SLEEP! It's a handy little invention that has a built-in night light that you set to turn green at a specific time. This is supposed to let the kiddos who can't tell time when it's okay for them to start jumping on your bed - and when it's not. Well, it stayed in the box for a lot longer than I'd like to admit but a while back I finally got it out (after Monkey spied it) and set it up. He was pretty excited about it and helped choose the color to personalize it. It comes with rings you pop onto the clock face (blue, pink and yellow) and he chose pink - just like Santa spider.

It is also a learning clock - it has a mode where it asks questions and you can set it to show digital or analog or both. If you push a button it will tell you what time it is too. All in all a pretty cool product. But the green light - that's the ticket (or so we hoped) for sweet, sweet sleep.

You see, Monkey has never been one of those fab sleepers (that many of my friends are lucky enough to have birthed). He didn't really sleep through the night until he was two. He's pretty decent now but does like to wake up at the crack of dawn (or pre-dawn) and come in for snuggle time. For a while that was fine - he'd usually go back to sleep and it was really hard to muster the strength to get up and put him back to bed. But interrupted sleep adds up after a while - and the end result is a very cranky mommy. Thus the need for adhering to the green light!

I'm happy to report that this morning - green light nirvana was achieved! He must have been up and waiting because he came in at 7:01. After the requisite snuggle he said, "Mommy, I have to show you something - come see!" and on the shelf/headboard of his bed were all his sea creatures spread out. He had woken up, seen his light was yellow and played quietly until it turned green. (Something we have talked about ad nauseum when brainstorming on what he could do before his light turns green). I can only hope that this will continue (and I am prepared for the worst) - but what a great morning!!!


This picture was taken during "quiet time" at our cabin on Vashon.

Update 12/19: 3 days in a row he's waited for the green light! I shouldn't even type this as I might jinx it!

6 comments:

Teacher Tom said...

Nice! There's nothing better than getting them to understand YOUR need for sleep. I tried to never refer to it as "her" nap time, but rather mine.

My fingers are crossed for you!

Babe_chilla said...

Stopping over from SITS!

That clock sounds like a great idea! I should find one for my friend :D

The Grasshoppa:Triplets Plus Two Momma said...

oh my dear sweet heavens! I need one of those ASAP for my triplets! They are super early risers and I am basically sleep walking through my days!!

Need to check that out!

CG said...

DUDE! I've GOT to get my hands on that CLOCK! Going to read your other post about it! Stopping by from SITS and boy am I glad I did! Happy Holidays!

Writing Without Periods! said...

I've never heard of this. What a great blog.
Mary

Unknown said...

Oh my word! I love that he is learning: ) Really wonderful! Way to go! How is it going? Is he still doing that?