March 13, 2008

The boys are napping and I am trying to get some much needed rest, as I am definitely feeling this cold today. They played very well together most of the time this morning, so that was nice.

Last night was interesting and a bit unusual for us. The boys have always been such great sleepers. I still have only had to go up to them at night once each during the year-plus that they have been home. Last night we were in bed, falling asleep, when I heard Ben on the monitor. I listened to him for a little while and he was still sleeping, but it was a fitful sleep and he kept crying/whining every once in a while. He and I are both on the same track with our cold so I thought maybe his head was hurting or he was feeling achy.

I went up to him, to give him a little ibuprofen and had to wake him up to do it. As soon as he woke up, he said 'downstairs?'. That's what he always says:). Anyway, I gave him the medicine but noticed that he was too hot and that may have been part of why he was sleeping so fitfully.

This is a difficult time of year for keeping the temps comfortable in our house. The upstairs experiences rapid, wide swings in temps, as it is cold at night and pretty warm during the day. The downstairs is not quite so volatile but we still have to switch back and forth between using heat at night and air conditioning during the day, since none of our windows on the first floor are of a type that open. Isn't that strange? The other strange thing about this house is that it does not have any linen closets. Very strange.

Anyway, I turned on the air upstairs to cool down the boys room for just 10 minutes or so. I knew from experience that it would cool down very very quickly so I had to be careful to watch the time. I went back to bed to wait for about 10 or 15 minutes. I had not been in bed for more than 5 or so minutes when Nick started to cry.

I don't know what it is about a mom's intuition but you just know your kids and you can tell by their cry when they really need you. I ran back upstairs, thinking that their room might have gotten cold faster than I realized. Ben tends to be hot natured and Nick tends to be a bit more cold natured. I found Nick, lying in his crib without his PJ's. He was just in his diaper so when the air came on, it did not take very long before he was freezing. He was shaking and shivering and was not a happy camper. Ben was still awake and sitting up in his crib at this point.

I picked up Nick and his PJ's and his PJ's were wet, which was strange. The boys like to have a little drink of water before going to bed so I guess he must have spilled his and I didn't realize it. Either he did not want to wear wet PJ's or he got hot...either way, he decided to take them off and then he fell asleep.

I had to run downstairs to get another pair of PJ's out of the dryer:). It was clear he was going to throw a fit if I put him back into his bed, so I grabbed his blanket and wrapped it around him so I could take him with me. I knew Ben would throw a fit when we left him so I gave him my flashlight to play with. I keep it next to my bed so that if I have to go upstairs to check on the boys during the night, I don't have to turn on the hall lights. If I turn on the hall lights, they can see it around their door and they will wake up. Anyway, it worked like a charm and Ben was happily playing with the flashlight when we returned from downstairs.

Another strange thing was that Nick decided he was hungry, as we walked through the kitchen to get to the laundry room. So I got him a small piece of bread and he was once again a happy little camper. We sat in the rocking chair in their room while he ate his bread and Ben played with the flashlight. Then I let them both have another small drink of water before going back to bed.

This all happened around 10:30 or 11:00. The dad was sound asleep by the time I got back to our room. That man can sleep through anything. I wish I could do that. I'm such a light sleeper.

I am currently reading a book called Teaching the Trivium, Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style. It is a pretty good book. I am hoping to combine some of this book with The Well Trained Mind and that will make up the majority of our homeschooling methodology....not that we will do everything these books say but it will make a pretty good straw man to start with. After reading so many homeschooling blogs and reading about the experiences of other homeschoolers, I am sure we will make modifications to our methodology as time goes on, keeping what works and changing what doesn't. Right now, the classical style really makes a lot of sense to me. We'll see if the planning and actual practice match up as well as I hope it will.