Nap time

Mason's newest trick is playing games at nap time.  Every time I put him in his bed, he gets up and opens the door, laughs at me, and goes to play.  At first I thought he was just done with needing naps, which I was NOT happy about (I need naps too!) but then the first day he did it, he pooped out on the couch around 5 and slept there for an hour and a half.  Not the most convenient place for a nap when I need to cook dinner and he's a light sleeper.

So, reluctantly, we started locking him in his room at nap time.  Just took one of the child safety locks and stuck it on his bedroom door.  I really didn't want to do it, but he needs his naps (and so do I) and when he started doing it at bedtime too, it became even more important.  This isn't the kind of thing I ever thought I'd do, but you do what you have to.

One thing about it, I always take the lock off once he's fallen asleep so he can get out when he wakes up.  This is especially important since we've started sleeping with a fan in our room, because with his door closed, and the fan on, I can hardly hear him crying when I'm awake. I don't want him thinking I won't be there for him when he needs me, and I don't want him thinking of his room as a prison.  He usually wakes up before me, and Mike often forgets to open his door before he leaves for work, so I take the lock off once he's really asleep.  That's the only thing that makes it not so mean in my book:  we aren't locking him permanently, we are just making it clear the bedtime means you stay in your room.  I hope he grows out of this stage quickly though, I don't like having to lock him in.  He seems to be learning, I just put him down a little bit ago, and he didn't fuss or try the door when he saw the lock on it.

Funny thing from a couple nights ago, he woke up around 11 really upset and ran into our room before I could get to him.  But he was heading for Mike's side of the bed, which is very unusual.  I grabbed him (since Mike wasn't even in the room yet, he was in his "office"), and tried to calm him down, but nothing would do it until Mike came and cuddled him, and put him back in bed.  Then, we were standing int he living room discussing the situation, when we heard a SLAM!  Mason had gotten up and tried to slam his door because we were talking and it was apparently disturbing him.  I say tried, because his door is messed up somehow and it won't latch unless you give it an extra tug, so slamming doesn't work very well.  It was pretty funny though, it sounds like the kind of thing I would do if I was trying to sleep and people were making too much noise in the middle of the night.