Other perks

I was thinking about some other perks now that Theo is in the toddler bed. He used to wake up cranky and groggy from his naps. Not always, but often. I would think it was when he didn’t sleep enough. It seemed if his nap was 3 hours then he would wake up in better spirits, but that wasn’t always true. And the opposite, sometimes he would be chipper after a less than 2 hour nap, which I found shocking. Anyhow, since the toddler bed, he wakes up in some very cute fashions. It seems to either be that he wakes up and walks over to the door, which I then hear rattling like a cat is scratching, I hear little whimpers, “Mama open door!”, or something like that. He hasn’t quite perfected the knob turn so he is always stuck in there, technically. Or, if he sleeps 3 hours, and it’s after 4pm, I usually open the door and peek in there to make sure he hasn’t escaped somehow 😉 Most of the time he is already sitting up, or walking towards the door. He gets super excited and shouts, “Theo wake up!” and “Mama open door!” This time he is just remarking on the fact that I opened the door. This naturally makes me smile and I promptly kneel down and ask him for a hug. We give big hugs and smooches and all is right with the world. Any irritations that may have crept up during his nap time, or residual frustrations from something that might have happened in the morning, are usually washed away. I’m not sure whether there is really a connection. Seems silly and far fetched. When we still had the crib, I had recently started carrying him around after his nap asking him about his dreams. This seemed to help get him out of the groggy zone. We would look out the window and I would say, “did you dream abooouuut the playground? did you dream abooouuut bananas? did you dream about Dada? did you dream about Elmo? did you dream about trains?” you catch my drift… He absolutely loves this. This tradition has carried over to the toddler bed and it’s just a sweet time for us to be silly and talk about dreams and his interests. It sure beats when I was having to hold him while he whined for nothing that seemed to soothe his crankiness. Sometimes I would put on Thomas the Tank Engine and that would help bring him out of the zone. I would put it on, grab some snacks, and wait for my sweet guy to return. I’m sure all of the above will happen again. For now, I’m happy that he is napping well and that he is happy with his bed! At least until the middle of the night…