Mom Show

I have a new favorite show: "Jon and Kate Plus 8" on TLC. It's really good for moms to watch because it puts things into perspective. For those of you who haven't seen it or even heard of it, it's a family of 10- that's right, 8 kids! A set of twin girls (age 7) and a set of sextuplets (age 3.5)! The show follows their lives and shows the chaos of having a family that big, what life is like with pre-schoolers, etc. They manage it all with smiles on their faces and it's really entertaining...and, again, puts things into perspective. Any problem I might be having trying to predict what my 3 year old will do, while trying to manage my 11 month old (11 months in 2 days!), seems minor compared with having to do that with 6 different 3 year olds and 2 bigger kids. I think I'd be friends with Kate, a fellow Type-A person who tries to control everything she can, within reason, and still maintain a bit of her sanity.

Which leads me to my own control issue: the naps (or lack thereof) for Allison. I decided to try something new today. I put her in our room to have her rest, which I knew she'd go for since she digs our bed. Well, we also taught her a code to let us know if she needs to use the potty, which is she knocks on the door. After about 15 minutes of her being in there, I heard the knock. (Let it be known that she has also been exploiting the knock for awhile, somehow knowing that we just can't ignore it because that would send the message that she should just pee in the bed, or in the past cases, just take off her own dirty diaper. Smarty pants.) I had her sit on the potty, but did she go? Of course not. She just wanted me to read her another story. I put her back in her own bed, at her request, and told her she needed to rest. Well, about 30 minutes later I heard the knock again. (At least I got to lay down for those 30 minutes. I think I even drifted off a bit.) Anyway, that knock woke up Thomas, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid by putting her in our room. I got her up, she actually used the potty this time, and then we went downstairs. Thomas preceded to cry for almost an hour (off and on, of course) and I just gave up on him falling back asleep. So now it's back to the drawing board. I told her she can't knock anymore since it wakes up her brother. I think I might just put her back in our room again tomorrow and tell her to just use the potty on her own, if she needs to go. I need a break so I really don't care if she makes a mess! I don't think she really needs to sleep since she goes to bed at around 6-6:30 and wakes up around 6:30-7am. It's just another one of those adjustments I have to make...no real rest time for myself. I've relied on the daily quiet time since she was a baby, knowing that however tired I was all I had to do was make it until 1pm, then I'd get a break. When Thomas arrived that was shifted a bit until I got him on the same schedule. Now I guess I just have to figure out how to keep her resting, if not sleeping, for at least an hour without waking up Thomas or interrupting my rest time!