What is Afoot in the Household?

Childhood is really a bunch of phases strung together.  Some are good, some are not so good and all must come to an end.  I always tell this to myself when we are in a particularly nasty phase.  Poop in pants, super sloppy eating, running away from mom like it is a game, all of those lovely things.  However, the one phase that seems to be a recurring theme in our household are sleep issues.  We have had them since, dare I say Day One?  If not Day One, it must have been by 12 weeks when I went back to work and Jac got his first cold while meeting his teachers - three days BEFORE he started daycare. 

Since then we have had it all, you name it.  Nightmares, night terrors, bed wetting, sleep walking, teeth grinding, throwing up in the middle of the night, trouble going to sleep, trouble staying asleep, kids joining us in bed, us joining kids in their beds, throw in the random ear infection and it is a wonder Jeff and I aren't walking zombies.  Jeff seems to have adapted.  We have a rough night and the next day he gets up, gets ready and goes to work.  Like nothing happened.  He might take a nap on the weekend, but I am pretty sure he has always napped on the weekend.  I however, have not adapted.  I get crabbier and crabbier as the saga continues.  Surely this too must pass? 

So currently we are going through a phase where Jac is waking up again in the middle of the night.  The problem is that when he wakes up, for some reason Mia is waking up also and then we have two kids awake in the middle of the night.  Jac normally goes back to sleep either in bed with us, or me in bed with him in about 10 minutes.  Mia on the other hand, once disturbed she may take up to two hours to get back to sleep, ouch.  Why is he waking?  I have no idea.  His diet is great, he is getting a lot of exercise, our routine is pretty solid, he isn't have nightmares, terrors or falling out of bed.  His teeth grinding seems to have stopped.  So what is the deal?  What gives?  He is restless for no apparant reason.  He is stressed about something, would be my best guess.  He does start Kindergarten in less than two weeks, this is big and more than likely the reason for his angst. 

I really am not sure what to do, if anything.  Continue our routine of course, continue to feed and water well and get plenty of exercise.  And then after that, how do we help our five year deal with stress?  If anyone has any bright ideas, let me know! 

These are the culprits

These cookies look like innocent turkeys, but beware, they are actually enough to make your four year old have an all out meltdown!

The kids and I made cookies on Monday with our neighbor friend. Fun was had, spoons were licked, feathers were applied and cookies were eaten. Then it got ugly. (Queue scary music.)

Jac's behavior has definitely gotten a bit less four year old like and more two year old like since giving up the nap and starting preschool this fall. Things are good when he is well rested and fed, and evidently not when there are a couple dozen turkeys looking at him. All was well until we sat down to dinner. First, Mia was not interested, everyone in the family loves meatloaf, but not tonight. Then Jac jumped on the bandwagon and decided that he wasn't eating either. All out mutiny. Which was simple enough to solve. If you aren't hungry fine, please leave the table so that mommy and daddy can eat in peace. But be forewarned! No dessert if you don't eat your meal.

Well things went from bad to worse with Jac, and he was sent to his room. Mia decided to buck up and try the potatoes that I had fixed. (Contrary to the critics at the table, it was a tasty meal. Sweet meatloaf, a potato and cheese concoction, and sauteed beets. You may have issue you with the latter, but I promise it is good and in our house, you don't have to eat everything you just have to try it all. The only reason you would have to eat everything is if you wanted one of those turkey cookies. Queue the scary music again.)

So Mia was back at the table eating and Jac was in his room. It sounded from the wailing that someone was doing him bodily harm. Jeff and I were finished with our meal at this point and were cleaning up the kitchen. After the kitchen was clean I went upstairs with Jac. Being the reasonable mother I am, and knowing that what my son truly needed was sleep I gave him two choices 1. go eat your dinner and no I am not making you anything different or 2. go to bed. (It seemed like an easy choice, I wasn't being mean on either level because for choice 1. Jac has been known to eat two or three helpings of my meatloaf and for choice 2. he normally goes to bed at 7:30 and it was already 6:45.)

My son doesn't always make the wisest choices. He opted for a middle road of being defiant and shouting, I am not eating it if it is my dinner. In four year old speak what he really meant was, mommy this fit will stop if you will just give me a turkey cookie - did I mention that he has been screaming for turkey cookies this whole time? I of course knew what I had to do, put Jac to bed. I knew it wouldn't be fun or easy, but this is what I had to do.

So another 30 minutes later after Jac had finally been convinced that he wasn't leaving his room and I would stay with him until he fell asleep, he did just that, fell asleep. It was ugly and loud and certainly not how I would choose to put him to bed, I felt like the mom in the book Where the Wild Things Are. I did realize a few things from this incident. Jac needs more sleep, somehow we need to get him more sleep. The turkey cookies must be put away and potentially sweets in general must disappear for awhile.

Some questions that I had were, how do I get this boy to sleep more? Do we have too many things going on (preschool and play dates are really all we do, but is four days a week just too much)? And last but of course not least, how do I get rid of two dozen turkey cookies?