Using words, resting eyes

Last night I uploaded a post I'd written a while ago and not posted for some reason, about Miss's expanding vocabulary. In the three weeks or so since then, it's amazing how many more words she has - I actually asked her to "use your words" to tell me what she needed today. (It didn't work, of course.) Unlike her brother, who would never repeat a word just for the sake of it, she's a little parrot, quite happy to attempt anything. The other night there was a clamour for more Blues Clues from Child One, and suddenly Child Two came running over to me hooting "Boo coo, boo coo."

I can't even start to list all her words, but thinking about just food words, there's waffle, peas, cheese, bread, drink, juice (not that she gets it), sandwich, broccoli, bagel, apple, strawberry, blueberry, cookie ... okay, so sometimes you need the context to know she's saying it, but I'm still impressed.

We're all a bit at sixes and sevens these days as far as sleep goes. I'd love to blame it on the missing hour, but it's more to do with nap transitions - Miss from two naps to one, and Monkey to giving up his naps altogether. So some days she drops off for a quick catnap before we pick him up from school, and then naps late or (argh) not at all; some days he naps and goes to bed late, others he skips the nap and goes to bed early.

All I can do is offer the opportunity - which for us means going for a walk around 1pm with him in the stroller and her in the Ergo - and if they take it they get the nap and if not, they don't. But there's no consistency, so it's hard to plan anything: an afternoon playdate or even a trip to the post office might be sabotaged by someone who didn't nap, is unexpectedly napping, or can't be taken out in a car for fear they'll fall asleep. Yesterday Monkey had no nap, so he went to sleep at 7pm - which meant he was awake at 5 this morning, which has led to a nice early nap this afternoon, which I hope will bring us to a reasonable bedtime and a reasonable waking tomorrow, but who knows.

Monkey never actually admits to napping. The most you'll get him to say is that he rested his eyes. Here he is resting his eyes in the stroller one day last summer.