Holland had been falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion in the car for many of his naps last week. It makes it easy for nap, but it hasn't been giving him much practice with helping himself self-soothe, so today I tried to come back to the house before he fell asleep so he could get used to consciously helping himself sleep.
We went to the Mayfield Nature Preserve today and did some hiking. The terrain was pretty uneven, so although it wasn't a lot for Sofia and I to handle, Holland was enthusiastically tackling the "extreme" hiking he was doing. He was really quite good at maneuvering his body. He only fell down a couple times, but he was up and ready to go in seconds. He did get some minor scrapes close to his left elbow and on his knees, but they were mainly surface scuffs. We washed them when we got home with soap and water. Since we saw a lot of poison ivy last time, Sofia was on the look out for it again. We talked about some of the characteristics of it, so she could find it - the groupings of 3 leaves, and also what the leaves looked like, comparing them with other leaves that were around. I purposely left on the early side - around 10:30 so we could get back before Holland needed a nap. On our way back, Holland looked like he was starting to fall asleep. I asked Sofia to pass the water to Holland since he hadn't had any yet, hoping that would wake him up. Luckily it did, so he was plenty awake when we got home.
We had some leftovers for lunch. Cindy said that you guys don't eat whole wheat bread, so we could feed them to ducks or something, but the kids have eaten it with me, so I gave them a few pieces with their lunch today - Holland with spaghetti sauce, and Sofia made a sandwich with the last pieces of rice and a piece of carrot after she finished off the Chinese food I made last week. The kids have generally been pretty good about eating the food I cook/healthy food so I rather serve them that if possible. As long as I'm eating healthy with them, they eat pretty well with the healthy choices that are offered. Sometimes Holland won't like something, but I know he's trying hard to like it because he would watch us eat it happily and try it several times. And that's fine. If he genuinely doesn't like it, I offer him something else. Plus, they can always have a little of my food if they want - same kind of stuff. The stuff I eat I feel fine with them eating too so that lessens a lot of food battles.
Also, I've noticed that the kids take a few hours to get hungry between meals. Even after Holland has woken up from a long nap in which he's skipped lunch, sometimes he'll choose to play for a little while instead of eat right away. They may eat if offered something earlier, but they're not necessarily hungry. I notice that they can calm down from being upset sometimes if offered food, but I want them to be able to learn to work through and regulate their emotions instead of being distracted by food. I also don't want it to be a habit that they take into adulthood, where they reach for a treat to ease being upset. I generally just offer food at certain times - this helps them focus on the task of eating and also helps them pay attention to their own satiety signals. I'll probably just offer Holland lunch when we get home, so you don't need to buy any snacks for the car ride.
The kids played for a little while after lunch. Holland wasn't showing any signs of tiredness, but it was passing 12:30 and I thought it might be a good idea to try sleeping soon. He started rubbing his eyes a few times and we went to read a book at 12:45. He knows the routine! I got a book and he walked over to the big bed for us to read together. We read "I love you this much" and I put him in his crib. He lay there as I left the room and didn't make a peep. I assume he fell asleep without much trouble. Sofia has been preferring me to tell her pretend stories (stories I make up) before she takes her naps. I want to get her ready for school by having her nap around 1 (the standard preschool napping time), so we did our nap routine soon after I helped Holland.
Last week: I had an idea to have Sofia work on another drawing of herself since now she's seen bodies at the body exhibit and has read a few books on the body. She decided she could just draw on the back of her other body drawing instead of getting a new piece of paper. She had the idea to bring over one of her library books as reference : ) She drew a brain, a heart, and an arm muscle. She was intentional in using red and blue - the colors they used repeatedly for the veins and arteries.
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