set in stone

In our house we have a schedule. A routine, if you will. Well, not a routine really. The Routine. Yes, it deserves capitals because this regime is undeviating and broken at your own risk. Around here, The Routine is gospel. If you go off schedule, woe be unto you, witless and foolish mortal.


Now, this arrangement includes not just waking time but also, most importantly, sleeping time. Penny has been on a sleep schedule since she was three months old and that is one of the only reasons I'm not still in the crazy house. That and very strong narcotics. The Routine makes our days so much more enjoyable and easier to handle. No, it's not always convenient to be home precisely when she needs to be down for a nap or for bed. And we've been known to miss out on some things but really, there is nothing more important to me than a happy child. I don't get out of the house as much as I would like to but I've seen life without The Routine and I've lived life with it. I'll choose home-bound every time.


And something else that makes the day much easier for me to handle - I've started napping when she does. I heard that over and over again when she was an infant. Sleep when they sleep, but as all parents know, that's not entirely possible. Though now that she's 2, she takes one lovely two hour nap and I'm right there with her. It makes the rest of the afternoon so much easier to handle.


So remember what I was saying about keeping to The Routine? And not fiddling with it? Or changing it even slightly or Penny's beautiful little noggin might explode in a tantrum of tears? For the past week we've pushed back her bedtime by half an hour. It's been staying lighter just a bit longer and she was crying in her crib for long after she was usually asleep. So we pushed it back 30 minutes. We changed The Routine. And something miraculous happened. She didn't wake up at her usual 6am. She slept in until 7:30. Seven. Thirty. By pushing back bedtime by thirty measly minutes we somehow came out ahead an hour and a half; 90 whole minutes of happy happy sleep time. Ah-mazing.


I know what you're thinking. Didn't I just go on and on about how The Routine is unbreakable and how Hell shall be loosed if even slightly ignored? Yeah, well, just goes to show that some flexibility is needed when dealing with a toddler and that some rules are made to be broken. Just not the one about not sticking beans up your nose.