Author Archives: Christene

Gnomes

Gnomes snuck into my bed last night. And no, this is not some cutesy way of saying my children slept in my bed. There were gnomes, and they styled my hair.

Perhaps a little back story is needed to fully understand. I went back to work this week, and since I pretty much destroyed any sleep schedule I may have had before I took a two and a half week vacation, I have been up at all hours of the night, and waking up at 4 in the morning has not been fun. It is only Wednesday and I am exhausted.

Last night I wanted to wash my hair. I got in the shower, lathered up, was doing what I normally do, and right before getting my hair wet I realized that washing it would only take ten minutes, but then I would have to brush it, and style it, and put product in it, and, and, and then I just rinsed myself off and stepped out of the shower before letting a single drop of water touch my head. I would rather spend two hours on Pinterst than doing my hair. I have my priorities.

Not to mention that if it doesn’t dry properly (which it almost never does), I would have to restyle it in the morning. No thank you. Besides, that is what pony tails are for.

So, after doing absolutely nothing meaningful for a few hours I went to bed, anticipating a pony tail or braid or something in the morning. I woke up, and my hair was soft, fluffy, shiny, twirly and in overall great shape. I wasn’t expecting it to necessarily get worse over night, but I most certainly was not expecting it to get better. And where did the little twirlies come from? It smells good too. Not that it smelled bad before, but it really didn’t smell like anything, and now I smell as if I have been dipped in wonderfulness.

Either I am losing my mind, am deliriously exhausted, or gnomes broke in, snuck into my bed, and styled my hair. I am going to go with the last one.

P.S. The picture above is not recent, but my hair today looks just like that plus the added bonus of strategically placed twirlies. I would have totally provided a current picture as proof of said gnomes, but while my hair looks amazing, the rest of me looks like a tired mess, and nobody needs to see that. However, Tanya did see me today, so she can testify to how marvelous it is. Just ask her. Seriously, I am sure she would love to field numerous emails in regards to the status of my hair. Go ahead. And while you are at it, ask her to go into vivid detail about the twirlies. She is great with descriptive words, and if enough of you email her about this, I am sure she will have a few choice ones for me.

P.P.S. Tanya, when you describe the color, make sure you call it by name, not just “red.” And also, don’t forget to reference the smell. I made it a point to shake my hair in your face on several occasions at work today so that you may better remember. I didn’t mean to make you sneeze, I was just trying to be helpful.

Bath Time

Tanya recently told me she has been having trouble with her son going to sleep at night too early, giving her and her husband very little time with him in the evenings, especially since her husband would get home from work only minutes before the little guy would go to bed.

They didn’t really know what to do about it. If you know small children and babies, at that young of an age it is very difficult to alter their sleep cycles outright. The obvious thing to do is to stimulate them to keep them awake, but even this must be done in a certain way because the little things are practically narcoleptic. You could be bouncing the baby on your knee, or in the middle of tickling their feet and they will literally clonk out on you and fall asleep. I have changed my children while in the middle of sleep and they didn’t even bat an eyelash while I pretty much maneuvered them like dolls.

I realize a lot of new parents have this difficulty with their children falling asleep too early and either depriving their parents of bonding time in the evenings, or depriving their parents of sleep because they will then wake up too early in the morning. A trick I had with both my children worked rather well, and since I have mentioned it to Tanya, it worked for her too.

While playful stimulation does not necessarily work, physical stimulation that is slightly jarring can excite the baby enough to keep him awake for a bit longer. When my children were younger and tried going to bed earlier than I wanted them to, I moved their bath time to the time when they decided to sleep.

Small children do not like baths, and will often scream bloody murder in the tub, reacting like cats in the same situation. Obviously they still need to get bathed. Arguably they don’t need a bath every night, but until they readjust their sleep schedules, it doesn’t hurt them, and helps solve the problem.

Even though bath time only lasts a few minutes, they will be wide awake for at least a half an hour to an hour afterwards. If your child is trying to go to sleep several hours before you would like them to, work in increments, readjusting their bath time as necessary (usually half an hour to an hour later each week), until they start falling asleep at regular times.

Yes, all children are different, but this should work for most, and it is definitely worth trying.