There is a fine line between having a really exciting day and over stimulating your children.
You laugh and play all day long and during it seems totally worth it.
Today, we went to the Seattle Children’s Museum.
It was a ton of fun! The kids loved it! There was so much to do, we didn’t even make it through the whole thing.
We stayed for almost two hours at the museum, then decided to get lunch. After that, we went home because it was dangerously close to naptime and both kids were feeling it.
When we got home, things went easy enough. Feed toddler-because the food at the food court wasn’t good enough. Put toddler to bed.
Then feed the baby, and put him to bed.
They both slept for a glorious two hours! So my husband and I took advantage and got some shut eye too.
After naps, we went to the grocery store.
And then, I think this was our ultimate downfall, we went for a walk after dinner. At their normal bedtime.
They had such long naps, they should stay up a bit later, right?
No. The answer is no, they should not stay up later.
Lately the toddler has been running on our walks. Tonight was no different. She ran .7 miles around our block. That’s a lot for a three year old! (Ha! That would be a lot for me, but I was leisurely pushing the stroller with the baby.)
Once we got home, it was bedtime. The baby was not having it. He was trying to squirm out of my arms while nursing.
When I finally put him down, he rolled over while simultaneously standing up.
Whatevs. He can play or wind down, or whatever he felt he needed to do at that moment. I had a toddler to get to bed.
During story time in her bed, the baby was clearly upset in the other room. So daddy took over with the girl and I went to see if the baby wanted to eat.
Nope. Just wanted to squirm around. Oh, and scream. Maybe he’s teething? That’s always a good “go-to.” Or maybe he was so freaking tired from our enormously busy day, that he couldn’t wind down.
Went to finish reading with my lovely lady. Kissed her good night. She wasn’t having it. She started whining and crying. Did I mention the boy was still screaming? He was. They both were now.
Husband and I switched. Did what we could, then switched again.
After a bit of crying together, they were finally asleep around nine, (keep in mind, the baby’s normal bedtime is 6:30).
It was a fun day. But with a two hour bedtime and two children screaming in your ear, it’s sort of hard to remember the lovely time you had.
Tomorrow we’re going to have some fun. But perhaps we’ll limit the fun to one really awesome thing.
mamabyfire 
Sometimes we just have little time together as a family and want to squeeze all the fun in one or two days (especially during the weekends, for us) and I know what you mean… the little ones will just get exhausted. The parents too in fact! It will also likely make the mummy and daddy less tolerant of the tantrums, we are tired too… and so come to think of it, a long day is not good for both parents and children =) but we do it every weekend lol… and by the way, we don’t have a children’s museum where I stay… you’re so lucky! your kids are =)
Very good point! We were exhausted too! My husband has the week off, so we were trying to fit too much in. For the rest of the week, we’ll just have to pace ourselves.
We are very fortunate, we live a half hour from the city, so we have a lot of fun things that are close.
🙂
Over-stimulation is a mommy/daddy’s worst nightmare! And days like yours leave such a strong impression that it likely won’t happen again for a while for you. 😉
What’s crazy to me is that it’s when I feel like I have the kids’ schedules figured out that they throw me for a loop with a new development!
Samuel is changing over to mostly nap-free days now, and his bedtime (with no nap) had been being around 6:30/7:00 but here in the last few weeks he can stay up until 7:30/8:00. 😛
You are so right-we’re always so careful now! Haha! My kids are changing their schedule on me too-it’s making me crazy!
Right?! Where is that line? My husband and I get into this mess every single time we travel to visit family. There’s so much we want and need to do that it happens, inevitably. You would think, once it happens, it’s only logical that they pass out and sleep longer, but nope, it’s the exact opposite! And it’s completely miserable until they get back on their schedule. So crazy, the lives of children :).
It’s so nuts! We used to be able to rely on our kids sleeping in the car when we visit family-not anymore. Car rides with a crazy screaming baby, not so fun.
I know–before our daughter turned one, she’d sleep for hours in the car. Somewhere after the year mark, she started sleeping less and less in the car. Now, she almost never sleeps in the car, no matter how long the trip.
Exactly when it started with my son-the year mark! Ugh!
We are still fighting through bedtimes. It’s the most frustrating thing ever!! Especially when they get a late nap or no nap…or even their normal nap! ha
Same here. When I wrote this post, we were better off. Lately bedtime has been lame!!