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Friday, March 9, 2012

Monica Standard Time (MST)

Monica loves to remind us that the Stasul Household does not run on Eastern Standard Time (EST).  Nope, here we have our own special time zone, Monica Standard Time (MST).

The child can go for weeks on end, waking up for the day at 9am and taking naps at 11am and 4pm, finishing up the day with a 9pm bedtime.  This is Monica Standard Time.  Give or take a half hour, I can practically set a watch to her body's clock.  

Here's the catch with MST.  Any day, at will, she can choose to impose her own version of daylight savings, and throw off the entire routine.  I guess that's her right, having her very own time zone.  Inevitably, this is on the odd day that we decide to do something after her second nap.  If there is anything that involves any sort of timing or planning, she decides to to do something totally crazy, like start the day off with either a 7am or 10am wake-up.

Today is the perfect example. We're leaving at 6:30 to see Carly in the high school play.  Yesterday, I assured my mother-in-law that Monica would be taking her second nap around 4pm.  Perfect timing for me to shower and get ready while she was asleep, planning for her to wake at 6 so we could get her situated before we left for the evening. We are hoping to be home around 9:30 just in time for her to get to bed...blah blah everything would be perfect.

Yeah, right.  She woke up at 6:45am, played for an hour and a half in our bed, went back to sleep until 9:45, and her morning nap didn't even start until early afternoon, just before 1:00.  She's still asleep, which means she should be just about ready for another nap..yeah, at dinnertime or so.  Sheesh!
 
It's not necessarily any more or less work for JK and I when she has an off day, this is not my complaint.  I could really care less what time she decides she is ready to nap, as long as she is getting enough rest during the day so that she is not cranky and difficult.  The part that gets tough is when other people are involved in our plans.  Going to dinner at someone else's house, having someone come here to babysit; all of these things revolve around timing and it's frustrating for me when I cannot predict or commit to other people what we can expect.  

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to wake her up.  Because let's not forget that I never have any idea how long she might sleep.  She could sleep for another five minutes or another hour, I have no idea.  When I bug JK to help me figure out timing, this is our conversation:

Me:  It's 2:00 and she is sleeping,  blah blah, worrying about parents babysitting, blah blah, what should we do?
JK:  Let her sleep.
Me:  Blah blah blah, then she'll be awake till dinnertime when we're leaving, blah blah, cranky for your parents, blah blah blah.
JK:  So go wake her up.
Me:  Blah blah blah, arguing pros and cons of every tiny detail and factor of every minute of the rest of the day.
JK:  I have to go to the bathroom.
Me: Blah blah blah, now I'm just arguing in my head with myself, and getting nowhere....no wonder JK left the room...

So, it's now 2:30 and I am just going to go wake her up.  Who knows what the rest of the day will bring...I just know that we are leaving this house at 6:30 and I will pray to God that she isn't a little terror for his parents while we are gone for three whole hours.  Yes, a mere three hour excursion out of the house involves this amount thinking and over-analyzing.  No wonder I think I'm going crazy!


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