Night Parties

Any of you fellow parents of a child with CHARGE, and most of you with children who do not have CHARGE, know what it's like to go without sleep. Sometimes, Kennedy wakes up at unbelievable hours and is clapping, singing, and just rarin' to go for the day; at 3 or 4 am, however, we are not. Even at 6 am some mornings (weekends, e.g.), it's just not happening. We decided on a new plan of attack this summer so we wouldn't be awake each day at the crack of dawn: a visual.

Kennedy is an excellent reader and LOVES signs, especially "rules signs" - she's the only kid I know who goes to the McDonald's Play Place to read the rules over and over and NOT get on the play equipment. She even likes to sit by them. There's just something she finds so appealing about those signs with a line through them representing "no smoking" or "no shoes" for example. If she isn't familiar with one, she has to know what it means.

Last night, she was up really late (and tonight again as well with the Canada Day fireworks), so I strung some tape across the top of the stairs with a note about when she could come up and get us. Tonight, when I was reminding her verbally and with sign, "don't come up until 8:30", she said, "I know, mama, we can put a string across the stairs with the sign again." Yep, she asked ME for a sign. What a girl!

So, Graeme and I made two loops in a string and put it across the top of the railing (which she can easily crawl under no problem) and put a sign on the middle telling her what time she can come up and to remember to close her door (that way, when she does want to get up and have a night party, put DVDs on, watch TV, play video games, etc...she doesn't wake up the whole house). She's very independent and doesn't get into anything, she just needs reminders when she wakes up and is super excited that everyone else doesn't wake up with quite the same "joie-de-vivre" as she does (to put it mildly). Here's our latest "Kennedy Visual" - the when-can-I-go-jump-on-mommy-and-daddy sign: