Bed, Baths, and Naps

This is what we have to do to keep Will's diaper on during the night. Actually, he ripped that tape off seconds after I took the picture, so we now use duct tape. We are careful not to get it on his skin, and he loves it. He calls it his diaper belt and requests it as part of his bedtime ritual. And since we started taping his diaper on, we haven't had to clean a poopy bed even once!

On to naps: Ugh. Ryan doesn't want to nap anywhere except in my arms and since I won't let him, he pretty much doesn't nap. Well, he naps in the car. And every couple of days he naps in his crib, but mostly he just cries and cries and cries. I hate it and don't like to upset him, but if I nurse him to sleep he wakes up the second I stand up. And it takes an hour to walk him around the house until he falls asleep and I don't have the time or energy to do that. So we're sleep training. It's not fun and I hate it, but I think in a couple of weeks naptime will stop being such a source of anxiety for everyone. I hope so.

This week we started putting Ryan in the bath with Will, and it is so much fun! Ryan can sit on his own fairly well on dry ground, but in the bath he needs someone to hold onto him so it's not the most practical way to clean him, but he loves being in the bath with Will. The first time we did it Ryan giggled and squealed with delight for the whole bath. I have never seen him so excited. And Will seemed to get a kick out of it too, at least until Ryan touched Will's arm. Ryan apparently hadn't gotten the memo that touching Will's arm was not to be part of the co-bathing experience, but he knew for the next time.

This weekend we are off to Pittsburgh to meet New Baby John for the first time. I am very excited about meeting him and seeing Megan and Paul and Robbie and Jess and the Hankinator, but we were unable to book a two-room suite for this visit and I am terrified of what bedtime is going to be like. The best we could get is a one-room "suite" with a partial wall to divide the sitting area from the bed. I have no idea how we're going to keep Will in his bed or convince him to go to sleep. I am also sure that at some point during the night either Ryan or Will will wake the other one up and chaos and horror will ensue. I am therefore not going to think about it again until we actually have to face it.

And, finally, all evening tonight Will asked me to carry him from room to room so that he wouldn't be scared of the trick-or-treaters. I told him that there are no trick-or-treaters tonight and won't be until next Halloween, but he clearly didn't believe me. Every time I stood up to carry him into another room he reminded me in a fearful tone not to walk too close to the trick-or-treaters. Odd.