Family - it's where your story begins.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Zero video games, zero sugar = a good night's sleep?

Zero video games, zero sugar = a good night's sleep?

Well, hubby and I have come to the conclusion that:

a) if J plays his DS after school, he won't study
b) if K plays his DS after school and/or watches too much t.v. in the evening, he'll scream in the middle of the night

And also:

c) if K has anything overly sugary after school and anytime in the evening, he'll scream in the middle of the night

So today the kids do not have possession of their DS games. During a typical school week, we don't allow the kids to play the Wii. Our reasoning is that if they have time for that, they have time to study. They can play outside (gee, let them use their creativity for a change), but playing video games and watching t.v. all afternoon isn't in the plan.

I felt my hubby patting my arm in the middle of the night and I immediately heard K screaming. I got up out of bed and tried not to trip on the dogs (I didn't turn on the light), and when I opened our bedroom door I saw K's door open but he wasn't in his room. He was down the hall and in the living room, screaming away. When I asked, "K, where are you?" He came back down the hall and I helped him into his bed. I told him to stay there (I've learned that asking what was wrong does no good as he mumbles something that makes no sense) and when I was convinced he was settled in, I went back to my room and into my bed.

Not a whole two minutes had passed when the screaming started again. This time, my hubby went to see what was the matter. K said, "I need to ask dad a question." Dad said, "I'm right here. What do you want?" K mumbled something and went back to sleep.

We were able to sleep the rest of the night without more interruption. I told my husband that K had candy at his church group and that might be the culprit. Hubby said, "Then he isn't going anymore." I said, "What if I talk to them and see if they can provide a different kind of snack or maybe they just don't give any of the sugary stuff to K?" He said, "That wouldn't be fair to him." Well, something must change. K loves going each week and seeing his friends and being active in his church group. I just need to figure out a happy medium.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Alarm clock from Hell





I just realized, after the alarm did not go off, and after having spoken with my husband whose alarm it was and who had asked if it was set for radio alarm instead of beeping alarm, that maybe, just maybe, I set it incorrectly last night.

This morning begain badly. My husband's alarm is set for 4 a.m. For some reason, he woke abruptly at 5:30 and looked at the clock and said, "How did that happen?????" His alarm didn't go off. The display showed that it was set, yet it didn't go off. My blurry morning eyes couldn't see if the display showed a little alarm clock or music notes. As my husband wandered off to take his shower, I played with the buttons on the clock to see what was wrong. I couldn't figure it out but left my alarm alone as I wanted to see if it would go off at 5:35. It did. Hmm...
This makes me wonder if last night, when I was setting the alarms, if I didn't put his on music alarm.

We have had bad experiences with music alarms on clocks. They often don't cooperate. The radio/alarm clock we are currently using is only a couple years old, at most. However, I probably should have taken it back to the store after a couple episodes of setting the music alarm and having it go off, but without volume. And the volume was turned up pretty loud. Me thinks there's a short somewhere within the alarm/radio portion because the radio works just fine when you want to listen to music. :s

After talking with hubby on the phone just a little bit ago, after he mentioned perhaps the alarm was set for music instead of beeping, he asked me to go set one alarm for 4 a.m. and the other for 4:05 a.m. I did that before I started this post. I'm pretty sure both will go off tomorrow because why would mine go off just fine this morning if his didn't? Because I probably had his set for music. ARGH!!