The Creative Nanny

God's gift to nannies and parents alike. Those little legs just can't keep running all day and need a little relaxing. I am blessed that when the older one is at school, I get 2 hours of nap time. Since I don't have any other responsibilities in this household, I take the time to make sure that anything to do with the kids is clean and I work on homework...or this blog. When I do have the older one, we have quiet time. It's fantastic! But how in the world do you get those little ones to sleep? Well, each kid is different, and you need to find what works for you, but in reality, you won't have a great shot if the kids are not already tuckered out. Make sure you have expended as much of their energy throughout the morning as you can. There may be some fussing, but if it's a regular thing, they usually go to sleep no problem. Originally I was having a problem with the older one still wanting to play and making naptime nearly impossible as it sometimes felt like I had to drag him out of the room to let the other sleep. So I thought that if he had a way to be a part of getting his brother to sleep then he'd be more excited about it. I came up with a silly routine that goes something like this: "Stand up as tall as you can. Stretch and reach for the ceiling. Touch the ground. Spin around. Sit down. Lay down." Sometimes this is followed with, "Stay laying down." As we get up and walk out. And then we blow tons of kisses at the little one. It worked! The older one now gets to lead this whenever he is home and loves having the responsibility of putting his brother down. This is when I allow him to watch a show or two, or we watch a movie together. Then we do something quiet together, like read, or play cards. Really nice and chill. So what have been your tactics to getting little ones to sleep?