Okay, you were right JB

Sleep has been my biggest challenge during our time here in Germany. Not for me. (Benadryl has been my friend.) But for the boys. We have been trying to nap them in the same room because:

• they are going to need to do this when we go back home with the addition of a third child to the family.


• they both really want to sleep in "their" big beds here. Neither of them wants to be removed from their room.


• Veronica and I really want to have our rooms during naptime if possible.

But sleeping in the same room, while relatively painless at night due to fatigue, is not relatively painless in the afternoon. They play. They yell. They run around. They take the lamp down and lay it on the floor. They open drawers. They turn the alarm on on the noisemaker. They turn the lights on and off. I go back in about two dozen times. I beg. I plead. I punish. It's crazy! Isaac has also started telling his brother (I can hear him through the door) to do things he isn't supposed to do. And then his little brother gets in trouble when he does what Isaac says. What a stinker! (Serves me right for what I did to my own little brother when we were kids.)

I came up with a few strategies, and I tried various strategies on various days. Tried putting both of the boys, on different days, in Veronica's bed. (They were distraught about this.) I tried having Elijah slept with me. (Which worked but I knew was was a bad habit.) The final result? I ended up setting up a pack-n-play in my room (they have one here already) and using it as the place you go to sleep if you don't behave. I have been using it everyday. Every single day a different boy would be warned, fail, and end up having to sleep in my room. It worked. They both slept. But it wasn't fun for me to have to punish them. And whoever got punished was really sad and cried a lot which I didn't enjoy either.

So via SKYPE the other day, I started brainstorming with JB. Actually, he was witnessing the nap drama first hand and my utter frustration coupled with one of the boy's intense sadness. His idea was to not give them time to "wind down" as I had been. I had been giving them tirty minutes to tire themselves out it the room before I started enforcing staying inb ed and going to sleep. JB said I should stand outside the door. Jump in there immediately when someone got out of bed. Warn them. Then, his idea was to bring the warned child to the pack-n-play and then offer them mercy. "Do you want one more chance to be a good boy?" Then return them to bed for one more chance. Only after they err again, would they spend the entire nap in my room.

JB was sure this would work. I was not. I thought that it would just be a waste of time -- delaying the inevitible. I thought that it was not following through on a punishment. But I was plum out of other ideas. So, with great doubt, I decided to implement JB's strategy.

And by gosh, it worked the first time. Within like 10 minutes! Unbelievable! And then, yesterday, it worked again. A second day. I'll be darned.

I stood outside the door. Heard Isaac get up. Warned him. Heard him again. Put him in pack-n-play. Offered mercy. Second day I did the same with Elijah.

And ten minutes later, they were both sound asleep. Both days. Same result.

Go figure. Out-smarted again -- by my husband.

Won't be the last time, I am sure.