Serving Table 7

For the past week, eating and sleeping has been a challenge.

Breakfast (usually our most successful meal) is still the most successful but with half the food consumed.

Lunch, I really don't bother anymore. Artemis doesn't even eat ONE bite of food (Max has been known to eat one or two bites).

Dinner, well dinner's really messed us up. For the past week, they haven't wanted any food at DINNER TIME. Unfortunately, they usually wake up at 9pm or later and want to be fed. Sometimes it happens, others times (if I know that they had a late snack), I don't bother.

But last night was bad. At 12:30pm, Artemis was up and (probably) hungry. I let her sooth herself to sleep (a few minutes). At 1am, Max woke up. I could hear him sucking on his soother. At 1:45am (yes, I was still up), I went in to check on him. Wrong move. He was in the same position (that he was at 1am), sitting, staring at the door, sucking on his soother. At 2:30am (you guessed it, I was still up), I went in to check on him and it was still the same. I figured I should do something or he and I weren't going to get any sleep. I put him in his high chair and filled him full of food and then put him back to bed where he (and I) quickly went to sleep.

It's not that the kids don't like to eat. In fact, they snack all day long (they're mooches). We don't want to deny them food and figure that we'll teach them about not mooching when they have better understanding and communication skills (in the next six months!?).

I don't mind that they eat all the time. I'm just happy that they ARE eating. It just makes me feel like (a waitress) serving Table 7 all.day.long.

And, if I thought that eating was a problem, these kids never want to sleep. Their one nap is down to 45 minutes (for Artemis) and up to 1.5 hours (for Max). We're lucky if they're in bed by 8pm. Sleeping is highly overrated as it cuts into one's playtime.

The child and youth worker at playgroup says that this is totally normal for this age group. It's not a time where they are growing (significantly) and they'd much rather play. She's got that right, from the moment they get up until we make them go to bed because we're so exhausted they go to bed, all they want to do is play.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon playing outside. I love Fall. I'd be happy if it was Fall (or Spring) all year long.