Sneaking in More Snoozing

I thought we had a handle on this bedtime thing. Seriously. We have a routine. We moved our son's bedroom to a darker, quieter room. Now, I think we have to focus on an earlier bedtime. Three things happened to sway me.

1. I had a coworker tell me that his elementary school children go to bed at 7. My son gets a bath at 7:30 (maybe) and is in bed, soundly sleeping on his own by 8:30 (usually).  
2. I read Mommy Shorts post about Sleep Training - her sleep consultant/expert recommended starting the bedtime routine around 6:30 (that's SIX THIRTY!).
3. When I go to wake up my son in the morning, he buries his sweet little face in the mattress and says, "Nooooo. Tay. Bed. Jamas."  A two-year-old, not a teenager, is begging to stay in bed.  I think I'm doing something wrong.

We had our two-year-old check-up and our little lion is growing strong - he's in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. He's quite verbal. He's got a handle on the developmental tasks they asked about - turn a page of a book? Check.  Jump? Check.  Say two word sentences? Check.  Watch tv? No.  Since he's a bit ahead of the developmental curve and still showing steady growth, I feel slightly less guilty about him not getting to bed as early as he should.

But.

I know that we need to make a change. Summer is coming, which will be great, because he can "tay" in those "jamas" a lot longer, but with summer comes long, warm nights and the temptation to let Ari stay up to play.

Because, do you want to know the truth about why we let bed time get later and later and later?

My son is fun. It's not just that he's having fun, it's that we are, too.  We can have dinner at a reasonable hour, socialize, have a dance party, go for a walk around the neighborhood, read stories..do all the things...when bedtime is at 7:30 or 7:45 or 8...or...oops.

Childhood is short, and I have realized it's made even shorter by long naps and early bedtimes, but I need to be a grown-up, be a parent, and recognize that my son needs more sleep.

Because, little buddy, preschool is coming up fast, and they don't allow for three hour naps to make up for the late bedtime your parents let you have.