You Asked, I Answer (Part II)

Here are 3 more questions you asked...and my answers.

You Asked, I Answer (Part II) 1Dorothy asks: What is your favorite flavor of cake?

In general, I'm not much of a fan of cake. I'm the girl who will politely decline wedding cake...not because I'm on a diet...but because I don't like it. Especially cakes with heavy layers of frosting. Ick! I prefer to scrape off the frosting before eating.

All that said, I DO love cheesecake and apple crisp (especially when served with vanilla bean ice cream).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You Asked, I Answer (Part II) 2Vanessa asks: How do you handle naps for both your girls?

My 3-year-old hasn't napped for about a year (maybe longer...). My 11-month-old typically takes one nap per day, for about 45 minutes. I realize that this may shock and surprise many of you because I hear stories all of the time about kids napping happily for 3 hours until age 5. More power to ya!

You Asked, I Answer (Part II) 3Tim & I have come to the conclusion that all children are different and our girls just don't need the long naps that so many of the "sleep experts" recommend. And that's 100% fine with us. They are happy, content girls who sleep well at night so we have no complaints.

We don't have set "nap times" or "sit-in-a-crib-and-be-quiet" times. We take a more laid-back approach and tend to let our girls lead the way. If it's a struggle to *make them* take a nap, then why force the issue? That's the way we see it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You Asked, I Answer (Part II) 4Joy asks: How did your mom raise six of you and you end up being such a confident, well-rounded woman?

Well, first of all, thanks so much for the compliment.

For those of you who don't know, there are indeed 6 of us - five girls, one boy. I am the third child, a middle child.

Here is a not-at-all-recent picture of me with my mom and four sisters. It was taken circa 2000 (I think it's high time for a family photo shoot, don't you think? Perhaps we'll do that this summer...we're going to have a mini "reunion" of sorts).

You Asked, I Answer (Part II) 5

There are many things that my mom did right. A few that come to mind include limiting TV (we didn't even own a TV until I was 8-ish), homeschooling, and encouraging many of my dreams [my parents let me travel across the world to Bangladesh and Pakistan when I was a freshman in high school, for example].

Other things that I admire about my mom: She had 5 (FIVE!) home births and she breastfed all six of us for a year or more...in a time when both of those things were generally frowned upon by the culture. Love that.

YOUR TURN: What is YOUR favorite flavor of cake (and do you like frosting)? How do YOU handle naps with your kids? How many kids are in your family and what do you admire about your mom?

Leave a Reply to Nini Lettner Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

13 comments on “You Asked, I Answer (Part II)”

  1. I love cake, a really good vanilla bean cake is the best and I adore really good butter cream frosting. These things are pretty rare in the world unfortunately.

    Naps (sleep in general) are a struggle around here). If I let Lily nap on me she will sleep for an hour or three. I love to let her do this and do it a number of times a week. However I need to get some things done so sometimes I put her in her crib (a pack n play in our room) and she will sleep for 20 minutes max. Nights are not much better, until I bring her to our bed (when we go to bed) she onlt sleeps f

  2. Favorite cakes? Chocolate with chocolate icing, followed closely by red velvet with buttercream!

    We have two children who have always been terrific sleepers at night (12-14 hours with no wake-ups) versus good nappers. Our oldest gave up his morning nap by the time he was 11 months old -- and quit sleeping in the afternoons when he was just over two. Both do have to have a mandatory "one hour quiet time" in their respective rooms every afternoon -- not just for their sanity, but for mine. :) They're still sleeping well at night, and when I asked my pediatrician several times how to get them to start napping again, he'd always respond, "Don't try to fix what's already working!"

    I have one sister -- 8 years younger than I am. My mom is not only a great mom, she was and is a good friend. I tell her things now that I can't tell many other people. I trust her with my feelings, and I like that she comes to me for advice at times, too.

  3. Favorite cake - I am all about a box cake with the can of icing. Gross? Maybe...for some, but I love it! I don't need fancy bakery cakes...just bring on the Betty Crocker! :)

    Naps - both of my little ones still nap. My 15 month old takes one nap after lunch and my 3 year old doesn't sleep all of the time, but we are firm believers in 'quiet time'. I can't make her sleep, but she can have some good time being quiet and resting. She is allowed to have a few toys and books during her rest time. Usually she falls asleep for a little bit, but on the days she doesn't, it is okay...that quiet down time rejuvenates her and usually helps her have a 'happy heart' for the rest of the day.

    I am the youngest of six kids. My mom did a great job raising us. It was a different time when we were growing up. That paired with living in a teeny tiny town in Vermont allowed us to play outside all day. We rarely watched TV. We were given the freedom to play, explore, ask questions and we were given good rules/boundaries to follow.

  4. Favorite cake - Angel food or cheesecake, both with fresh strawberries on top. Not a big frosting fan, but I do like it occasionally.

    Call me old fashioned and apparently, not in line with current trends, but I am a total schedule Mom. My babies took two naps a day for about 2 hours each at 10ish and 2ish. I did do the "cry it out" method, but it lasted a day or two, and they gave it up and slept. When they started to fight it at about 15 months, we transitioned to one nap around 1. However, when we made the transition with baby #1, she started sleeping in until 10 a.m. It was CRAZY, but so nice when baby #2 came, and I could get her back down for a nap before the older one ever got up for the day! My husband was working swing shift then so it was nice only having one child up in the morning when we needed to be quiet for him to sleep. I am a FIRM believer in the importance of little ones getting adequate sleep, though I do agree that "adequate" varies from one child to the next. Sleep experts don't know ALL children personally, and their advice should be taken as just that - advice. My oldest, 5 1/2, still takes a good 2 hour nap in the afternoon. She is usually okay without it, but it seems to do her good. My little one at 3 1/2 fights a little harder as her personality is much more spunky, but we can tell by 7 p.m. if she has or has not slept that day - GROUCH POT!! She has also always been our early riser - 5 a.m. some days! Ugg!

    My mom is by far the most talented mom I know. She does all the home making stuff INCREDIBLY well: cooking, baking, bargain shopping (she spends a TON, but I doubt she's ever paid full price for an item in her life), deep cleaning (though her house is seriously cluttered, she can get a stain off anything), laundry (no one had whiter socks than we did), sewing (I was long legged and skinny, so she made most of my clothing {easier than shopping which I hated} including my jeans, the most beautiful and modest prom dresses, and my wedding dress), ceramics, porcelain dolls and their dresses, crocheting, knitting, anything crafty, you name it - she can do it! She is also amazing on the piano and organ! I most admire her determination to learn and do ANYTHING she wants! Yet, she always grew up thinking she was not the talented one of her family because she doesn't sing. Go figure!

  5. Thanks so much for answering the nap question! Why is sleep such a hot topic? My 14 month old has never needed a long nap time (we're lucky if he sleeps an hour once a day). He started sleeping through the night at 11 months. I was getting worried with the "sleep expert opinions" but I finally used my common sense and figured out that if he's tired, he'll sleep! I am so much more relaxed now that I know to go with the flow instead of forcing a nap! Thanks again for letting me know it's okay to ignore the "experts!"

  6. You should do the question/answer series more often! It's fascinating! Kudos to your fantastic mother - she is something else! Reminds me of my mom (mom to 7) and I love how she, like your mom, wasn't afraid to let me "go" and see the world. So important.

  7. Mikayla my 4 1/2 year old use to be a great napper. She was the 3 hour napper and eventually that nap got shorter and shorter. At daycare there is a mandatory nap or rest time and we notice on the weekends when she does not nap she is a bit moody in the evening. Even though she does not nap at home any more she does rest in the afternoons.

    With Lily for 2 year old it is hit or miss on the weekends. She is also my trouble child and at nap time when I leave the room she crys for a little bit but she does settle down and take a nap. I have tried everything to make nap time easier, sleeping with me, reading longer, waiting, trying to get her down for a nap earlier and nothing works. she just has to cry it out. Sometime she wakes up after 30 minutes and I am able to bring her into my bed and she falls asleep again for another hour or so.

  8. Just recently, my almost 3 year old has stopped taking naps at home. She still takes them at her preschool. On weekends, for part of her brother's nap time (1 year - naps daily from noon to about 3, because he wants to... never fusses a bit), she has "quiet time" on the couch with a book, quiet game, or maybe a video. Half the time she snoozes on the couch, the other half she just plays or reads quietly.
    She took two naps a day until she was well over a year. He started taking just one a day at about 9 months.
    All kids are different!

    Cake - like it. Any flavor, the more frosting the better. Mmmm with milk please!

    Mom - she's awesome.

  9. It is quite possible that I had the exact shoes you're wearing in that picture. I wore them to my high school graduation (2001). :)

    I'm not much for cake, either, but I love a good homemade frosting. I much prefer pie to pretty much any other dessert, though.

    I'm the middle of five and the only girl. I wanted a sister so badly growing up, but now I appreciate my position in the family. ;) Besides, my older brothers have given me two amazing sisters-in-law.

  10. Thank you so much for answering my naps question!!! I was dying to know that. I am beginning to think we are very similar. While my 2.5 year old still takes a nap, I think she is almost done with them. My 8 (almost 9) month old does not take great naps and yet manages to stay so happy. I kept reading and hearing from all the "experts" who say she has to nap so many times per day for so many hours, yet she won't (and I won't let her cry-it-out to do so), so I was at a loss as to what to do. We also don't have a "set" schedule, rather I just watch for my daughter's cues and follow them.

  11. Funny. I'm not a big cake eater either, but I actually love the sugary frosting, and I will actually eat cake just for the frosting. I would be the one eating the frosting you scrape off your cake (with some coffee). :-) I know this is incredibly over the top and a bit disgusting when it comes to sugar intake, so I don't eat cake on a regular occasion. Maybe once a year :-)
    My little boy actually naps more now than when he was a newborn and young infant. He just never slept!! Really. Never. I think now he is just so, so extra energetic and since he can now run fast and jump high and climb and do all those things he couldn't do as an infant, I think he actually tires himself out by the afternoon and ends up crashing for a bit. However, his nighttime sleep is sound but short, so overall he really still doesn't get a whole lot of sleep compared to the "sleep experts" either. But he just doesn't seem to need it either (for the most part--sometimes he needs it but just doesn't want to give in and chance missing out on something exciting:-).)
    There are three kids in our family. I am the youngest of three s. I always wanted a younger sister and an older brother, although I wouldn't ever want to trade my sisters for them--I just wanted them in addition to my two sisters, who I love dearly.
    What do I admire about my mom? At this point in my life I'd have to say her ability to keep a really clean house--even when we were little--and never really make a big deal about it. She has a large house and I never see it dusty or anything. I can keep my house neat and pretty organized, but I have a hard time keeping it truly clean, and cleaning always feels like a big job to me, not easy like it seems to my mom.
    Wow, I gave some long answers. Your answers have been really fun to read! Thanks for sharing with us.

  12. I think different kids definitely have different napping needs. My first gave up naps when he was about 3. My second gave them up with she was just 2. She still doesn't need much sleep. My third is a different story. She just recently gave up naps, at 4. And some days she sill needs one. I think going with the flow is the best way. You know when they really NEED it. :-)

MetropolitanMama - See The World, One City at a Time
©2024 Metropolitan Mama - All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram