They sell hotdogs too

We've been trying to figure out what Cole needs in terms of naps lately. I think he's smack in the middle of the 8/9 month sleep regression, according to the lovely genius Moxie, but it seemsto me that perhaps the four month regression never ended. Lots of night waking. Not complaining (per se) - more just saying it. We are tired. Very, very tired. It takes a lot to get me this bone-achingly tired...

Because Cole is also all about not napping throughout the day as predictably as he used to, our patterns are a little out of whack and I'm slightly at a loss. Do I do something about it? What would that be? Let nature take it's course? Babies like routine, according to the books I have, but what if his routine is going through a transition? To what?

Our normal day used to go like so: wake up at 5 or hopefully 6ish (yikes), food, playtime, morning nap, food, playime at home, activities out with a nap on-the-go around noon, food, playtime at home, late afternoon nap, food, evening playtime, bathtime, bed. Nothing hard and fast, but it was pretty predictable. I'm not a schedule person at all and am brutal with timing (hey, I was even born late!) but I have found a lot of comfort in knowing what to expect generally throughout the day...

Well, it seems like Cole wants to drop an afternoon nap. Most of the time he doesn't want to sleep later in the afternoon. If he wakes up around 6am (or more likely, if we can coax him back to sleep in our bed for as long as possible) then the day works out ok and he naps mid morning at home and in the stroller for an hour or more when we're out in the early afternoon. We've moved bedtime a little earlier, to 6:30, according to advice from the good old Internets. But if he wakes up earlier then he ends up napping earlier throughout the day and then being way too wired and cranky by dinnertime... But, on the other hand somedays he's fine with it. And other days he only naps for half an hour in the carriage around noon and then I don't know what to do, since he doesn't want to sleep later on... The formula goes: he likes this if he does that but not that if he did like so and of course there's always the x factor of such and such. I do not like math. So what to do?

Oh, I realized that I started this post off with the intention of talking about IKEA, Sweden's gift to the world, other than brilliant hockey players, that is. Apparently any post I've tried to write in the last few days ends up being filled with sleep questions/whining or incoherant rambling about my various woes... Or reading articles on sleep while waiting for photos to upload. Well, the other day when the early naps thing happened I broke routine and decided that we should go for a 3:00 ride in the car. Dusted it off (hadn't had it out since Christmas - it's a real waste of money) and we drove to IKEA. Two things accomplished. Cole napped for the 30 minutes it took us to get to Coquitlam and spent the rest of the evening cheerfully, and we got to pick up one of there fancy collapsable tunnels that I'd been hankering after for a while. Perhaps afternoon jaunts to the suburbs are in order as we figure out this nap thing?

We took an extra little while to get out of the house. Cole is a wiggle worm during changing lately and likes especially to flip around as soon as his diaper comes off. He clambers over to the diapering supplies basket and tries to outwit me and suck on various lotion and powder bottles. If I thwart him he tries to crawl away and inspect the latch on the door, at the head of his changing table... This time I was trying to wrestle the diaper on and growing hotter by the minute (in my coat and scarf, already anticipating sitting still in the car and listening to the cbc). I put him down, sans diapers, on the floor so I could get my coat off and he had a whale of a time crawling around half naked, ripping books off his shelves and emptying the contents of a few baskets. He was enjoying himself the way only someone in a bear-eared coat, one sock and no pants can do... He was really a sight to behold. I actually really enjoy these moments when whatever happens and we just do our thing together, crawling around and playing, laughing, taking photos. He really is absolutely loads of fun and I think he already has a quirky sense of humour - he's a little imp.

Anyway, part 2... I do love ikea. I wish we had the kind of warehousey dwelling with exposed bricks painted a derelict kind of white and battered old wood floors that would make ikea furniture blend well with retro mod stuff in a weird, euro, cool kind of way. As it is, we just have the same shelves and lamps and picture frames as everyone else and it's ok for now. Works well for us. I've even gotten pretty good at assembling things... I also love their meatballs, the lingonberry sauce and the sparkling pear cider. I wonder whether actual Swedish people really do eat that kind of stuff, let alone buy it at ikea...

Anyway, partthree now? Cole loves his tunnel! That is what I started this post to communicate. He really loves it - he crawls from one end to the other laughing and squealing and having a blast. I would love it too - if I fit, I'd crawl in there with a book and fall asleep. Conveniently for us it matches his floor tiles, which is nice. Even though our place has become quite overrun with toys and whatnot it's nice to at least have some of them coordinate...

I also found him an adorable little push cart while we were there. Have to have at least one impulse buy per trip, and the suspiciously inexpensive hot dog doesn't count.