Nap or No Nap...?

I can't figure out whether to continue with Charlie's naps or not... and I can't believe I'm even thinking about nixing them because I am such a believer that kids need sleep and lots of it. But Charlie is perplexing me... He's not quite 2 and a half yet but if I let him sleep as long as he might on his own, about 2 hours, he will wake too early in the morning. I put both he and Davey to bed at 7pm but Charlie will often wake before 6 these days. I have been shortening his nap, waking him after one hour, but it hasn't been helping much.

Some days he doesn't nap anyway because he'll get out of his bed (moved him out of his crib about a month ago). I've resorted to locking the door to not let him out. Being 8 months pregnant and on my own with them I just haven't had the energy to deal with bringing him back to his room over and over all night and day for naps.

Normally he'll never sleep anywhere but his bed, never in the car. But the last few weeks he's been falling asleep in the car a lot which leads me to believe he still needs naps. No conclusion here... just writing about my confusion! Guess I'll have to give it some more time to figure out...

Not Succeeding

I must admit I have been loving having a full-time housemaid (for most of) the last year and a half... but I guess I need to make a little more effort in giving the kids more responsibilities... Since we've been in Abu Dhabi it has been hard to find some help at home (and I need it more than ever!) and we had a nice girl helping us for just a week of the time we've been here. Once she left, Davey asked, "Do we still have a maid?" No was the answer. To which he replied, "Then who will clean up after us?" Ugh...

Later That Day...

So that wasn't the only adventure Charlie had that day, though the next one wasn't nearly so scary.

When we moved into our apartment in Abu Dhabi, I decided it was a good time to transition Charlie to a big boy bed. The first couple days went well, but he soon discovered he could get in and out as he pleased.

It took me a few tries to figure out how to respond, but decided the best way would be to just take him by the hand without a word or eye contact and lead him back to his bed every time he came out. Over the first several days, twice a day of course for nap and bedtime, I must have done that a couple hundred times. He thought it was such fun.

It was very tiring for this 7+ month pregnant lady so eventually I started holding onto the door handle so he couldn't open it. I just couldn't keep leading him back over and over for hours each day. The day before the elevator escapade, I heard through the door Charlie talking about locking the lock but he didn't do it. I made a mental note to check if my house key also opened the inside doors. The next morning I did just that and found it didn't work.

So, as you can guess, that afternoon while Charlie was supposed to be napping, he got up tried to lock the door. I heard him start to touch it and immediately opened the door and guided him back to bed. The next time he got out of bed he got to the door and turned the lock so fast I couldn't stop it. He was locked in. Ugh. I didn't know how long he would be in there before I got a key. I was unsure if Oxy had the keys or if the reception/maintenance for the building would. After trying to coax Charlie into unlocking it, I made a call and maintenance was able to come in and unlock it, thank goodness. Needless to say, I now I have keys to all the interior doors.

Almost two weeks later I still lock his door. Sometimes he unlocks it himself but luckily seems to forget that he knows how to do it. Finally in the last two days he seems to be trying to do it less. But he still will get out of his bed and cry at the door and often not nap. Oh well, life is full of transitions.

Elevator Escapade

While we're in Abu Dhabi, we're living on the 5th floor of a 23-story apartment building. The elevator doors close very quickly so I've had to be vigilant about making sure the kids get off before me. Well, they had gotten good about running right off and I got lazy...

So Charlie and I were coming home after dropping Davey at school and I got off before him. He didn't get off right after me and I couldn't stop the doors from closing! What a nightmare! I'm just listening to him call for me... I tried to stay calm and watched the elevator go up to the 7th floor and stop. I frantically called the elevators (there are 3 in the bank) and the same one came back for me - phew! I figured he'd be on it. But he wasn't! So I went up to the 7th floor figuring he'd be there... but he wasn't! Now what do I do? Then I'm looking at all of the floors he could be on... the two levels of parking garage... oh my gosh, it was scary.

I decided the best thing to do was head to the lobby so I could enlist the help of the receptionist and other workers and perhaps find a way to call all the elevators back at once or have us all running up and down the staircases looking for him on each floor. Luckily, when I got there, Charlie was there too. What a relief!

Apparently someone had called the elevator from the 7th floor, the guy must have seen Charlie - imagine an elevator opening on your way into work and seeing this little two year old, wearing sunglasses and holding a train, all alone in your elevator... it makes me chuckle a little now - so Charlie must have gotten off and while the guy decided what to do with him, the elevator left to come get me so they got on another one and rode down to the lobby.

It was all probably over in one or two minutes, but it felt like forever. The funny thing is that it surely made an impression on Charlie since he still talks about it at least once every day... "Remember when I got stuck on the elevator? A man got in with me and I wanted my mommy." You can now imagine that I never let down my guard.