Day: July 28, 2005

Sleep Week

When Helen was a baby, we noticed a pattern: One week, she would eat absolutely everything she could get her little grubby fingers on. HUGE amounts of food would go down her gullet, and she’d suddenly look very fat. We named this week Eat Week.

Then the next week, she’d sleep later in the mornings and take really long naps. After many meetings and much discussion, we named this week Sleep Week.

And then the next week, none of her clothes would fit and she wouldn’t look fat anymore. We’d move up a size (in shoes and clothes), and the world would return to normal.

Alice is following the same pattern, but not in as regimented a calendar schedule. We’re currently on Sleep Week. The Fat Baby has been sleeping now for over 2 hours, which is VERY long for a morning nap. She’s not been eating very much this week, and I noticed yesterday that some of her shoes are too small.

Hmph. Gotta get out the next batch of clothes from the archives… Alice is moving into the 18-months size more quickly than Helen did.

Swim Day

Helen’s playschool is having a Swim Day Party today (in a wading pool), to celebrate the end of summer for all the kids going off to preschool and kindergarten in the coming weeks. Helen is one of the kids that will be leaving, not because I’m unhappy with the playschool, but because we think she needs the routine that a preschool environment would give her. The looseness of the schedule where she is now quite obviously stresses her out, poor thing.

She will be going to a Montessori preschool, because we feel that the self-led aspect of their philosophy will be very good for her. I’ve spoken to pediatricians and several teachers that are good with her agegroup, and they all concur that she will probably do well and enjoy the new school.

When I took her there in February, just to let her run around and see what it was like, she had a BLAST. We were there for over an hour, and when I finally took her home, it was because it was lunchtime and I was going to have to nurse Alice (who was starting to get a little restless). I literally had to drag her out, kicking and screaming. And as we were strapping her into the carseat, she was yelling to the director of the school, “I’M COMING BACK AFTER NAP!”

That’s a very good sign, coming from timid little Helen. She was very stimulated there. I just hope she doesn’t completely freak out when we take her there and leave her on August 8.

Alice starts at the playschool this coming Monday, so she and Helen will overlap there for a week.