Not Napping

Owen is attempting to break my teapot.

He's standing up against the bookshelf wearing the too-big fleece that I pulled over him before I took him out running, and he can just reach the handle. If he gets hold of it he'll try to pull it down off the shelf. He's sporting two enormous bruises on his forehead, one from earlier today when he fell off the landing and one from a tumble yesterday. This hasn't discouraged him from climbing up and over everything he can reach, though. The child has endless curiosity and no fear, which make for many tears.

James is perched on top of our two ottomans singing "We are the Wiener Dogs" at the top of his lungs while driving Lightning and Mater all over. He says that the ottoman seats are his bed.

Neither of them are in their actual beds, you see, because they don't want to nap. Owen fell asleep for about 45 minutes, desperately tired after several bumps over the course of the morning and a big trip out to the grocery store. He could hardly keep his eyes open at lunch and he was screaming at everything that moved and obviously exhausted. Usually that means he'll give us a good 3 hour stretch of rest.

Not today. And James was never even close to falling asleep. I could hear him in his room talking to George and singing continuously from the time I went into my own bedroom to the time that I gave up on Owen falling back to sleep and went to retrieve him for a run in the stroller.

Both boys need baths. Owen has been carrying around a roof slat all day, which would be fine except that it throws his balance off when he can only use one hand and he continuously bonks himself (and others) in the head with it. He took a break from pulling books off my shelves a few minutes ago to crawl over to the ottoman, stand up against it, and start smacking James in the leg. James sat up tried to grab the stick, and then Owen pushed him (apparently off balance) and James landed headfirst on the floor. Fortunately they both thought this was funny.

James looks like he could fall asleep. His eyes are heavy, and he's switched to humming now. He's laying down, just moving the cars back and forth in front of him. Owen continues to explore the room. He had a book in his mouth a minute ago, then he tried to chew on the power cord to the computer, and now he has a pen in his mouth. And the roof slat is still in his hand.

I think James might be awake because he's too excited about getting to watch an episode of Curious George to risk falling asleep and missing his chance. He began asking early in the week if he could watch a George, and when I told him that he might be able to watch one while I taught my Thursday lesson, he began wondering if my student was coming every time one of J's students came to the door, or the doorbell rang, or if he heard a car passing by...and basically all day long.

The same continued yesterday, and when we woke up to a cold drizzle this morning we told him that maybe he could watch one tonight if the weather was still nasty. He pressed for specifics. We told him after dinner. After we finished lunch, he wanted to know which meal we'd just eaten. Were we sure that was lunch and not dinner? And now he keeps telling me he's hungry. I think he'd be fine with eating dinner at 3 PM if it meant he could watch George at 3:20.

I'm not sure why Owen isn't sleeping. He's obviously tired too, but after a certain point I don't think he wants to be awake anymore. He's decently coherent now, but in about another hour he'll start to whine whenever he has to crawl or stand up on his own, and will beg to be held. Of course, once you pick him up, he'll attempt to swing out of your arms and get back on the floor, but if you set him down he'll get upset about that too. It might be teeth. Or maybe a low fever? Or maybe it's sleep deprivation, or whatever. He's cranky.

He just tipped over a pillow and went rolling across the floor. He still has the pen in his mouth like a dog with a bone. They are sweet boys, both tugging on George.

But they could really use a nap.

And apparently, judging by the smell, one of them could use a diaper change.