black out curtains

yes - these were important to make for my little man who has oh-so-much-trouble winding down for sleep lately. he IS tired and he DOES need a nap, momma knows....but when he gets tired he gets hyper busy crazy and is a little tazmanian devil who takes forever to wind down (queue naughtiness/room destruction....reid calls it "rock-starring his room"). the bright sun pouring through at nap and bedtime (and so so so early in the morning) was not helping. so momma made these black out curtains (lined with black out fabric) to set the mood a bit more.  (the valences were already there but they were out of that dot/bubble fabric so i stayed with the ocean theme of the room and got some fabric that looked a little like sea weed to me in a coordinating color - i think it looks better in person than the photos show).  we've had a quilt over the window for the past week and it has significantly aided the wind-down process. in addition we've tweaked our timing on naps and bedtime, resulting in (generally) an easier going to bed process and also sleeping a bit later too! but i will not be too proud, every day is different. one day he goes right to sleep at naptime. other days it takes him an hour or longer to finally get there with lots of management and stress from momma in the meantime. learning lots of patience, creative thinking, self-control and child development information. i actually stayed up late "studying" last night, enjoying the insight this new book, "positive discipline: the first three years" has to offer. i even took notes. seriously.  i needed some new tools in my parenting pocket to feel empowered to face the day today (yesterday's naptime stress involved me crumpled in a heap on the hallway floor feeling completely lost and like a parenting failure). and absolutely, without a doubt, i learned a great amount of wisdom from just the first chapter and felt calm and centered and focused and empowered about how i was going to interact with and react to my little man today. much improved on both accounts.