The Star of Pooty Pout Radio: Drew

Today has been a good day. We got Lily off to school on time (barely), I came home and cleaned the kitchen and  then Drew, Julianna I headed to the Kansas State Fair.

We love the Fair. Today happened to be the day that we went with Drew's preschool. We stayed with the class long enough to go through the animal barns (yuck) and get a free scoop of ice cream before we headed off to watch the marching bands. The kids and I love the marching bands. Drew, Julianna and I sat through at least five different bands' performances before we took a break to have lunch. After lunch we went and did art projects at the Do Art building and sat through the pig races.

All in all it was a great morning. We had lots of fun and did just enough to not get over tired. We headed home to catch the tail end of Tom's lunch break and Julianna laid down for her nap. After Julianna was asleep Drew and I played a few rounds of Uno and Old Maid before I told him I needed to get some chores done....this did not go over well.

Now we are towards the middle of our afternoon. We will leave to pick-up Lily in about 45 minutes. Last year during school this used to be my favorite part of the day. Nap time was glorious. It was quiet and wonderful and no one had any expectations for what needed to to be done. I could do laundry or sit and surf the Internet. It just didn't matter. This year, not so much.

Drew is in the middle of a terrible phase. He sort of needs a nap sometimes, but not really all the time. If his bed time could be shifted to a later time (say, 8:30) then he would still take a daily nap. However, we get up at 6:30 every morning and Lily goes to bed at 7, so it's better if Drew doesn't take a nap so that everyone is going to bed at roughly the same time.

I pay for the early bedtime routine now. I pay in hours and hours of whining from Drew. And hours and hours of being pulled on, climbed over, hung on, and so forth. It's just not fun to be around Drew from about noon until 7 pm everyday. I am unaware of a solution to this problem. Drew has always been a bit...well, moody. But he usually was in a good mood most of the time. The rarity of the bad moods mad them easier to handle. Now there are fewer and fewer good moods and more and more bad moods. He actually has be at my wits end.

Right now the only thing I can come up with to solve my problem is to lock him in the closet...but that wouldn't be best because then he would just whine louder....and maybe call the authorities.