learning is hard

Along with slooooooooooooooowly cutting his eye teeth, Zane's been showing signs of having another big mental growth spurt, over the last week or two. I thought the 18 mo growth spurt had passed, so either there's another one at 20 mos or I was very wrong.

Suddenly, he's just a few steps away from saying his alphabet clearly and can already identify many of the letters. He's also able to count to 13 and can identify a handful of numbers, as well. I have absolutely no idea how he picked that up, as I haven't actively tried to teach him numbers, just yet. (Don't you dare say "blues clues" taught him, because we watch that together, and not once did I see an episode on numbers.)

Lately, he's been saying words in small groups, as well. Such as "I want waffles." or "Daddy, where are you?" While subject, predicate and object are all accounted for, I don't believe he quite understand all of what he's saying yet, so I won't call it a sentence.

In the midst of all this learning, his sleep's been crazy. He has been sleeping very well at night, when he does finally sleep, but he's been all over the board with the timing. He doesn't want to nap, despite MUCH effort on my part, until 4 or 5, which is, of course, too late. If we indulge him, he wakes up at 2, frosty and ready to greet the day.

If Duane and I keep him awake, he starts whining around 5 and breaks into a full cry until we finally break and start his bed-time routine. By the time his bath and books are done, he won't go to sleep. He is then up until 10, 11, sometimes 12 or 1. And, honestly, by the time his regular bedtime rolls around (7 o'clock) I really need him to sleep.

Even though I sometimes need to go up to nurse him back down, the period from 7 to 10 is the only fairly consistent time I get to relax and its something that I've come to rely upon... heavily. I don't do much with the time, but that's kinda the point. I straighten up for the first 15 or 20 minutes, and somedays I need to use the time for laundry, but the rest of that time is spent purely idle. Well, not purely so... I guess I do quite a bit with the time, but whatever. I just need it, ok?

Anyway... i just don't know about this weirdo sleep. Is he losing his nap? Is it the teething? Is he just sleeping weird because his brain is on fire with information? Is it the extra ginger snaps I gave him with his lunch? One thing's for sure: By the time I figure it out, there will be something else to stump me. And that's just as it should be. Oh how I love that boy.