Fending off the body snatchers
The aliens have been waking Leta up at ungodly hours. We did what anyone would do to protect our child from their corrupt influence and have once again sealed off her room from their death rays. This way she will never see the sun again.
As Jon and I hung the tin foil in her windows on Friday night we felt a tad mischievous. She was going to wake up at 6 AM the next morning like she has been doing for the last month, but the appearance of the room would indicate that it was still the middle of the night. A small part of me felt like we were intentionally deceiving her. That small part kept asking whether or not our personal comfort was worth the lie. The much bigger, world weary part of me had the answer and it went something like this: SHUT UP ALREADY.
Like clockwork she woke up at 6 AM on Saturday morning. Jon and I braced for the screeching, but after thirty seconds of loud rustling she fell back asleep. She didn't wake back up until 8:15. HAH! When I got up to go and get her I did a stylish moonwalk out our bedroom door and pumped my arms in the air like the pistons of an engine, a victory dance to signify our victory over the tyranny of a two-year-old who regularly sneaks into the bathroom to scratch her underarms with my toothbrush.
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FM Living
birdgal said:
This has given me an idea for the impending 'spring forward' that is daylight savings time...I just know my munchkin will be waking up an ungodly hour earlier when it happens!!
03.20.06 - 06:31 AM / 1Alison Kerr said:
I have to laugh at the choice of foil as a light-blocking agent. It makes me think of tin-foil hats!
03.20.06 - 06:33 AM / 2rivetergirl said:
I was going to suggest wrapping her crib in tin foil, but I guess covering the windows will work, too.
03.20.06 - 06:34 AM / 3Lady Bug said:
Note to self: Stop by the store for tin foil on the way home from work.
03.20.06 - 06:36 AM / 4Karen Rani said:
What a brilliant idea! THANK YOU. From the back of my eyelids!
03.20.06 - 06:37 AM / 5Maniacal said:
Funny, just yesterday I mentioned to my husband your idea of Tin Foil in the windows. He kinda looked at me like I was crazy. Those pescy Aliens are ALLLLL the way over here in NJ too!! BAY-STARDS!!
That's IT, I'm doin it...Husband approval or not!!!
03.20.06 - 06:37 AM / 6wordnerd said:
Ahh...Heather. Seriously, despite being the rockstar of Internet land, you still hear the same small albeit GODAWFULANNOYING internal voices that we all do....:*)
Have a good day. This post made me giggle...:*)
03.20.06 - 06:40 AM / 7Samantha said:
Forget the kids rooms. I'm thinking of doing it in my room. Was up at 7 Saturday and Sunday bloody sun. Huzzah, for the 8:15 sleep in. Don't think I'm not jealous cause I am!
03.20.06 - 06:40 AM / 8Thérèse said:
Hee. I wonder what new ways she'll find of torturing you once she wises up to this new situation. I mean, if you think about it... she'll have more energy now.
03.20.06 - 06:41 AM / 9Goingape said:
Wow, I need to do that for my cats. Not that Leta is like a pet... But my two cats start watching the birds the moment the sun comes up, and the best viewing window is in our bedroom.
03.20.06 - 06:41 AM / 10Kgoofyjmk said:
Nice!
03.20.06 - 06:42 AM / 11Maxigumee said:
Tin foil has so many uses! I never knew it could block out sunlight, though! I could have saved a lot of money on eye masks and thick curtains if I had known that.
03.20.06 - 06:47 AM / 12The Mighty Jimbo said:
what do you recommend for a dog that has the same schedule?
i'm not what he's been doing with MY toothbrush, but judging from his breath, he isn't using it on his teeth.
03.20.06 - 06:47 AM / 13Snickrsnack Katie said:
At first, I must admit I thought this was a tad strange, to put foil in the windows. But then I realized it was no more deceiving than me adding water to the apple juice or buying veggie burgers for our 4 year old and telling him they are regular hamburgers. Sometimes, we have to lie to our kids for their own good. And if it gives us a good chuckle in the meantime, what is the harm in that? I so need to give this hint to my sister, whose 15 month old daughter denies sleep until the point where she goes crashing headfirst into a wall from exhaustion. You, Heather, are a genius.
03.20.06 - 06:48 AM / 14Redpepr said:
You are devious and inspiring. i want to be like you when i grow up!
Red
03.20.06 - 06:49 AM / 15Julie Odland said:
Scratching her underarms with your toothbrush, huh? Mine does the opposite--he unscrews the lid of my deodorant and sticks it in his mouth. MMmmmm lavendar.
Anyway, enjoy the sleeping!
03.20.06 - 06:49 AM / 16Jon Z. said:
Dear god, this works?? Hark, where's my tin foil and tape???
03.20.06 - 06:52 AM / 17strawberrygoldie said:
When my ex hubby was a kid, he thought that foil on windows meant that the people inside the house were doing the nasteeeee.
Why did he think that you ask? Not even he knows.
This is a man who wakeboards naked by the local country club.
I have a son with this man.
Oh, what the future holds for me as a mom...
03.20.06 - 06:55 AM / 18Self-Proclaimed Supermom said:
That is the best idea I have ever heard! I need to try that on my kids. You are a smart, smart mommy.
03.20.06 - 07:04 AM / 19Elizabeth said:
When I was little, my parents made me a clock and told me that I couldn't come out of my room until the big hand was on the 12 and the little hand was on the 6.
Why did this work?
Because the clock was paper.
The big hand was never going to get to the 12.
The little hand was never going to get to the 6.
I'm not sure how long this worked, but it definitely did work for a while.
03.20.06 - 07:06 AM / 20patchuga said:
We do the same thing with our kids. Because they are sun-powered. Not only does the baby have tinfoil on all the windows in his room, he has a humidifier for white noise and a blanket to divide the room in two--so the door is not visible from the crib. During naps, we run a fan to add to the white noise. The oldest didn't even get tinfoil, he got cardboard duct-taped to the windows. IT WORKS.
03.20.06 - 07:10 AM / 21Jon Z. said:
PS: 6 a.m. is considered "late sleep" around the Zahlaway household. 8:15 sounds like noon to me.
03.20.06 - 07:11 AM / 22christy said:
she's like a bird! try putting a towel over her head next time you want her to take a nap, and I bet she'll nod right off.
the bad news is you'll spend a fortune on suet.
03.20.06 - 07:11 AM / 23NicoleR said:
Child rearing isn't in my near future but I feel confident that with your non-conventional approach (i've been taking notes)raising kiddos is going to be easy, or at least fun as hell.
03.20.06 - 07:14 AM / 24Be Still said:
We could never do this. In the Midwest, foil on the windows makes people suspect you are running a Meth lab.
03.20.06 - 07:23 AM / 25Vickee said:
This trick is usually discovered after birth of 2nd child, when parents are too tired to worry about ruining First Born's Spirit by putting amy limitations on said child's physical world. In reality, Sleep solves so many spirit-crushing problems. We graduated from the foil to light-blocking pleated shades.
By the way, after a few days of the dark room, Miss Smarty-Pants is going to figure out that dark room doesn't mean it's still night. We had a few nights of little ones stumbling around in the wee hours, but eventually everyone started sleeping through the night. For awhile. Then the night terrors started. Then we had to limit reading to non-scary bedtime books due to nightmares. I spose that 6-year molars teething pain is next. It's always somethin'!
03.20.06 - 07:32 AM / 26Elenalyn said:
Oh, the things we do to for a little extra sleep. I've been known to tickle Nathan awake to prevent a nap, just so he'd sleep longer that night...
03.20.06 - 07:33 AM / 27Elenalyn said:
Oh, the things we do for a little extra sleep. I've been known to tickle Nathan awake to prevent a nap, just so he'd sleep longer that night...
03.20.06 - 07:34 AM / 28Meg said:
I just love that it's foil. Nothing else seems right, anyhow. When we lived up north in the Yukon, my parents did the same thing to block out the endless light of summer. Unfortunately, I still had a body clock from hell that left me calling out at 5 am, "Hey! You guys UP YET?"
And this at age two.
03.20.06 - 07:36 AM / 29Amy D. said:
sleep is the nectar of the gods, I can't wait to use this trick! WOOT!! rock on, Armstrongs!
03.20.06 - 07:36 AM / 30