Parent Fail?



This is how my day started out yesterday, with my little boy happy and silly, like usual. We had a good morning of watching Winnie the Pooh and The Smurfs, then we had lunch and then it was the dreaded nap time. I don't know about you all with toddlers, but nap time has been horrible for us lately. I moved Parker to a toddler bed in December. Why? Because I thought he was ready. I think I was wrong. He does fine decent at bedtime, but naptime is a whole different ballgame. I warn him 5 minutes before that it is almost naptime. I give him a sippy cup of milk, his night-night and he goes and climbs into bed. Within 5 minutes I hear him up playing in his room. I put him back in bed. Immediately after walking down the hall he is up again. I put him back in bed. This goes on for an hour until I am completely frustrated and I realize a nap is not in the cards. What is ironic is he takes naps at school like a champ, no fuss.

Because of the no-nap situation, around 4:00 he turns into a grumpy boy monster. Every.little.thing sets him off, the fits starts, the time outs are non stop, and we are both exhausted. Tim got there around 6:30 with pizza, and Parker was in his highchair. Within 5 minutes, Parker was out cold in his highchair. You would think this is a good thing, but it's not. If I wake him up, he will freak out and if I let him sleep, he will be up in an hour crying. I let him sleep. He was up in 20 minutes screaming his head off, and nothing helped. Finally, after some coaxing and The Smurfs he calmed down.

So what do you think I did? I went into his room and started immediately putting his crib back together. I don't care if he is 5 years old and still in a crib, who is going to know? He was actually super happy about it, and went right to bed without making a noise. So maybe I was trying to rush my baby into becoming a big boy, and I don't even know why because that is definitely not what I want. However, I am glad I was able to admit to myself that it was a mistake and fix it, so hopefully it was not a complete Parent Fail.