Just Another Saturday

Though we had a crazy week, the weekend was remarkably uneventful. Friday night we asked Monster if he wanted to go horseback riding on Saturday and he said yes, so we went to our normal time. He did ok, but got very upset rather quickly. First off, it was very cold and he wouldn't wear his hat or mittens, although he will normally wear them. More importantly, I don't think they do enough riding during his lessons. They do a lot of work with stretching and playing basketball, etc. (see previous blog on it). It seems to me that he really loves the actual riding part and he just doesn't get that much in this class. Mr. is going to try and find something else that let's Monster do more riding.

After riding, we decided to check out the Hartford Children's Museum. That was a lot of fun. It is the closest place I've seen to the Exploritorium in San Francisco that I've seen yet. He really enjoyed a lot of the activities there, including a really cool klaidiscope room (picture above). I know the video is dark, but Monster is making faces at himself in the mirror here:

Back to School Blues

Monster went back to school this week, and man has it been tough. Everyday throughout the winter break, he would say "No School" each night. Eventually, one night we couldn't say "no", but instead said "School in the morning".

He had a very bad night that night. He woke up about 1:00 am and didn't go back to sleep until 6 am. He pushed every button that Mr. had. Since I had hurt my back recently, Mr tried to let me sleep, and I did (albeit not that well because of the pain). Eventually, I woke up to them fighting and brought Monster back into bed with me where I was able to get him to sleep. We tried to let him sleep as late as we could (rather we all tried to sleep as long as we could) and he was about an hour late for school, but we still made him go. We were concerned he would try to stay awake hoping to get out of school the next day.

Monday night rolls around, and after the movie, we go back into the bedroom. I asked him where he wanted to sleep (Mommy's bed or Z's bed) and he said his bed. However, he almost immediately asked for Mr to help him go to sleep. I think it took Monster about 15 minutes or so before he pushed Mr right over the edge. I intervened and Monster went to sleep relatively easily at that point. Unfortunately, Tuesday wasn't a great day at school-he bit and pinched his teacher. Nightime was also difficult (again). He wouldn't settle down during the movie and eventually I made him go to his room because he was winding himself up with the TV (I suspect all of this was to keep himself awake so he didn't have to go to school. Not that he connected the two, but he wasn't going to stop trying to get us to agree that he didn't have to go to school). Again, he wanted Daddy. (I told Mr. that Z broke him, and that Mr was the easier one to push over the edge than I was-which is a switch. When he doesn't want to go to sleep, Monster will try and anger me-or Mr in this case-so that he can feed off of our emotions). This time Mr. got him to sleep easier-although in the "big bed" and not Z's bed.

Apparently, Monster was better behaved (though more distracted) at school today. However, he wanted to go home at 2:00 (school is out at 2:20). I suspect this is going to get worse this week and Monday is going to be hellish getting him back to school. I would expect that he is NOT going to want to sleep on Sunday night again.

Anyway, since I like to end on a high note, here are some videos of Monster and Mommy sledding. As a bit of backstory, I hurt my back on Wednesday last week. It was slowly getting better until on Sunday, I felt fairly good and mobile. So mobile, I though for some weird reason it would be a good idea to go sledding with Z. Now, I was having no problems and didn't seem to have any pain during the entire time. Later, I realized I was fairly numb from the cold and when I defrosted, boy did my back hurt.

So here we are together, and Z alone, sledding.