Another day on the front lines in The Napping Wars of 07/08. Put him down too late...cranky toddler can't get to sleep. Put him down too early...mad toddler gets really mad and stays awake, never lies down once he is tired, passes his sleepy window, gets really cranky and can't get to sleep. The problem is that the window in which he'll fall asleep is about 20 minutes. That may sound like a big enough window, but it is deceptively easy to misjudge. Today was a case of too early. He stayed up there for 1h and 5min and then he was way past ripe, so I went up and helped him get to sleep, and he only slept for 40 minutes. The following day is the bad one when this kind of thing happens, and tomorrow we're going to help out some friends and are hoping he'll take his nap at their house. Ooh, fun ;)

Today was pretty fun. This morning we met friends at the indoor playground and we were the only ones there! It was great. Usually Owen is either getting trampled by big kids or I'm getting trampled trying to protect him, so it was great. The little man was excited about everything, but the winner was the ball pit. He discovered that he could sit on the edge of the pit (about 18" above the pit) and throw himself in belly flop posture onto the balls. The other mom was incredulous (as was I). It looked like it wouldn't be all that comfortable to land with some acceleration face first on hard plastic balls, but Owen couldn't get enough. He just kept asking me to help him climb back up and he'd get a wicked grin on his face and do it again. I had a flash forward wondering how I am going to tell him he can't play football someday.

In other news, two potty-training readiness moments today. First, Owen could not get out of his soiled diaper fast enough. I hadn't noticed the event, and Owen came over to me whining and pulling on his diaper, then flopped on the floor in front of me (translation: change me!). Second, yesterday I bought him a small stool for helping him reach the sink in the bathroom. He was happily standing on it as I undressed him for his bath. Oh look! Owen peed all over the little piggy on the stool. 'No, no Owen! In the potty!' says mommy. I popped him in the bath and cleaned up. Today, I undressed him near the tub as usual. While I'm prepping the bath, I hear, 'Dat! Dat!' (translate: That! That!) and look over to see him standing on the stool having peed all over it again and pointing at the puddle. No! No! say I, then pop him in the tub and clean up. After the bath we put on pjs and then Owen runs over to the trash before I can stop him, pulls out the pile of tissues I'd used to clean up and starts wiping down the stool with them. This is all very fun for him. So, all that to say that I think he's getting interested ;)