It is usually a mistake to take a nap on a day when Jonathan is absent, since I have a hard enough time sleeping when he’s gone. But I did yesterday. And then I foolishly stayed up interneting-around until nearly midnight. And then, instead of collapsing exhausted into bed, my brain decided to trigger some sort of existential mid-life crisis that kept me mostly awake for the next two hours.

So I was lagging a bit today and wanted to make sure the boys 1) took long naps and 2) went to sleep pronto at 8pm and stayed asleep till at least 7:30am. So here’s what I did – it’s quite simple, really:

1) Out the door by 8:30am to go to the beach

2) Encourage them to walk run most of the way home, stopping by the playground on the way.

3) Read two long books before nap to sufficiently calm them down, then play their favorite CD (we’re still listening to Christmas music over here).

4) Immediately after naps, head out to a different beach, stopping by yet another playground on the way home.

5) Remove them from the stroller and plunk them directly in the bath. Release the bathtub crayons to keep them entertained while I prepare dinner.

6) Feed them dinner in the tub. A tasty dinner with a large fruit dessert to make sure their bellies are full, hoping that will lull them to sleep.

7) Try not to go ballistic when Benjamin pees on the bed for the second night in a row… since that might rile them up a bit.

8) Read two books – old favorites that they’ve memorized.

9) Play their favorite CD (Christmas).

So far, so good. I’ll let you know tomorrow if they made 7:30am, which qualifies as "earlier than I'd like, but tolerable."

[Note:  check out Twinsights this week to see the boys snoozing peacefully.]