Water Slides!

Yesterday morning Nadia started her private swimming lessons. I kept the boys in the kiddie pool during her lesson, and then we all spent some time outside on the playground. We don't go to this large playground very often, so the kids were really enjoying playing on the equipment. I had planned to take them to our pool after her lesson, but we stayed at the playground so long that we ended up just driving straight home so Oliver could take his (pitiful) 45 minute nap in his crib. This morning I started getting everyone ready at 10:00, and by 10:30 we were piling into the van wearing our bathing suits. At 10:55 we pulled into the parking lot, and my heart sank because the parking lot was totally empty. I reached for my phone and discovered that 10 minutes earlier the swim instructor had called to tell me that the pool was closed this morning because they needed to shock the pool due to the rain we'd had. I was rather frustrated that my efforts over the past hour seemed to have all been in vain, but the kids asked if they could play on the playground. The equipment was wet, but they were wearing their bathing suits. They had a blast! The slides had become water slides, and boy were the kids flying down those wet slides! It's not supposed to rain the next three days so hopefully she will actually have her lesson tomorrow morning. Today's lesson has been rescheduled for next Monday.

Last year before we went to Florida, Oliver was an amazing napper. That changed on vacation, and although things did eventually improve somewhat (months later), his naps never went back to what they were prior to that trip. This vacation he took most of his naps in a pack n play, and when we were at Disney he napped in his stroller. The only day he took part of a nap in someone's arms was last Thursday in the Orlando airport. He had fallen asleep in the van en route to the airport. He had a couple of short (one hour) naps on vacation, but most of the time he was sleeping for about 90 minutes a day. The last four days he took a 45 minute nap. Every day I keep hoping that today will be the day his naps get back to normal. This morning he woke up at 5:30 (an hour earlier than usual) so he had a really hard time staying awake until 1pm. I had to keep waking him up as we drove home from the playground. A few minutes after I put him down for his nap he started screaming. I was startled because this hasn't happened in a very long time (more than a year I think). I was so taken off guard that at one point I went back in to rock him again and put him back down. That didn't help one iota.

He finally fell asleep at 1:35 just as I was leaving to take the van for an overdue tire rotation and oil change appointment. I was stunned when Paul called me at 2:00 to tell me Oliver had already woken up. Oi vey!!! Paul rocked him, and Oliver slept for almost 2 hours in Paul's arms. The bedtime woes continued this evening as he cried for 35 minutes before he fell asleep this evening, and he hasn't done this in months. I am not sure what is the cause of this problem, but I hope putting him to bed goes back to being no big deal in the very near future, especially as a babysitter will be putting him to bed on Friday night. Nadia doesn't take many naps these days, but she took a very long nap on Monday. I had to wake her up so she could eat dinner before going to VBS. Similarly, both Nadia and Ian slept until 7:45 this morning - more than 2 hours longer than Oliver did. Paul and I are hoping that he doesn't make a habit of waking up at 5:30.