The Cold, The Parade and The Crab

Yesterday was cold, cloudy and drizzly at times. It was gross.

Yesterday was also the start of Daylight Saving Time. That was gross.

Yesterday was also a St. Patrick's Day parade nearby. That was kinda entertaining.

Yesterday afternoon Jackson acted like a crab. That was to be expected.

DST doesn't usually go as well as I hope it does. The spring switch is usually worse than the fall, mostly because the boys don't want to go to bed at night because it still feels early to them. This year I decided to try something new: we would skip the afternoon nap and try our best to wear them out so that they would crash at the right bed time. Part of my grand plan of wearing them out was to take them to a St. Patrick's Day parade nearby!

Chase

Jackson and Nick

Tyler & Chase (hands in the pockets, trying to keep them warm!)

We were waiting for the parade in front of a garden statue place, so Nick took the boys to look around at one point. They all came running back yelling "Buddha! Buddha!"

Happy boys with Aunt Laura!

(L-R: Tyler, Chase & Jackson)

Did I mention yet that it was cold and miserable? Cause it was. It didn't help matters that we were somehow at the end of the parade instead of the start like it said it would be online. The cold, lack of entertainment (we waited an hour before the parade finally got to us) and lack of nap finally got to Jackson. Oh and it didn't help we weren't letting them eat the bulk of the candy that was thrown to them. So we left before the parade ended, which also added to Jackson's despair. 

The good news is, my evil DST plan worked beautifully! The boys crashed hard at 7:30 when we put them to bed (usually we hear giggling and carrying on for 30-40 minutes at least) and they all slept until 7:15 this morning!

Messed Up!

It's official. The time change over the weekend messed us up. Big time! Last spring wasn't a big deal and last fall wasn't a big deal. We were able to just keep them right on schedule. I think in the spring we had to modify slightly the day after the switch but that was it. This year is a different story...

Yesterday the boys woke up at 6am. 6am! I finally got up with them at about 6:45am because it was clear they weren't going back to sleep. Because of the early wake up, breakfast was done early. They proceeded to then need snack early, lunch early and their nap early. They were so cranky! They took a great nap (almost 3 hours) but because they went down so early they were ready for bed much sooner. I held out as long as I could to get them close to their regular bed time (7:30) in hopes that they would be back on schedule today. No such luck.

Here's how my day has gone so far... Boys up sometime between 6 and 6:30. I'm not sure of the actual time as I was too groggy to look at the clock. Nick got the boys up early and played with them for a bit in hopes of giving them breakfast at the usual time. He said they got close. By 9:30 this morning the monkeys were getting tired. I knew this because of the increased whining, biting and crying. I did my best to entertain and distract them but almost always someone (usually Tyler) was upset.

At 11 I decided I would make them lunch early and put them to bed early. I peeked into the living room before I got started and found Chase on the floor, head on a pillow and sound asleep. Awwww! Jackson looked like he was about to crash too but he was holding out to see what neat thing Barney was up to today. Tyler was just pacing the house crying. It was then that I made an executive decision. Everyone was going to bed immediately and we would do lunch after their nap.

I sure hope they're better tomorrow! If not I may have to consider moving to a state that doesn't recognize Daylight Saving Time.