Friday, November 16, 2012

return of the nap

Clark's decided to take up napping again. I don't really know what's going on. It's not a growth spurt because he's not particularly hungry. It feels more like emotional tiredness and I know all about that. Maybe he's still adjusting to his new school - that's a real possibility.

He'd been talking about his old school since school began, and last week I told him we could go visit. I hoped hoped hoped it was not a mistake. When we pulled into the parking lot Clark said, "This place is familiar. I know this place." Well, yeah. I was so surprised that he didn't remember it more specifically; thought his memory was more long term than I guess it is. He is only four and a half. Four months to him is a lifetime, I suppose.

We got there during Lunch Bunch and he was shy in the hallway, not wanting to go into the classroom. He warmed up as all the teachers and director came out one by one to hug him. Eventually he came into the room, and he played and had a grand time. It was interesting - he played for a short while with two of his old friends, then he sort of went off and played with the toys by himself. He seemed enamored of the toys themselves, like being in the bedroom of a rich kid.

After lunch they have enrichment activities for which you can sign up your kid - cooking or yoga or hebrew or dance - and the day we were there it was the alphabet. He wanted to stay for that and I let him for the first half. When we left he was mad at me and kept telling me he wanted to stay longer.

But since those few moments just after we left, he hasn't brought up the school at all. In fact, later on that evening he told me things about his current school, just little tidbits of his day, more than he usually says.

Still, this past week he hasn't wanted to go to school. He hasn't said he wants his old school instead, as he was doing before; he's just wanted to stay with me, or have me stay with him at school. He's been pretty attached to me overall, in fact.

So - maybe all the activities I have them enrolled in? Maybe.

The verge of a developmental leap? Quite possibly. In the last 3 months or so I've noticed a big shift in his ability to understand things. He's not a baby like he was before, and he's able to understand more and more nuances. Kids are rather amazing creatures.

The attempt to figure out the cause is an attempt to know how to help him, but since I can't figure it out, I think my best approach is to honor it. I've decided to let him sleep during the day as long as he wants rather than wake him in the fear of his sleeping too long and then not going to bed at night.

Today was the first day I let the nap go on forever. And now it's 10pm and I just paused in this blog post to return him to his bed for the 3rd time. Sigh.

As a mom, you really really can't win. That's what makes being a parent such a comical endeavor. We never have a clue what's actually going on, and in trying to respond to something we can't comprehend, we just talk into the wind. Blah blah blah.

Blah blah. 

No comments: