If we could just wear Josiah out during the day, he would sleep at night. It makes perfect sense, right? He doesn’t like to do much in the way of exercise, so, getting the boy in a pool to swim should do the trick. Yesterday, after all the kids got home from school, I packed our pool bag.
My fabulous friend, LuAnn, had graciously offered her pool any time we wanted to use it. Her exact words were. “Our pool is your pool.” Such a great friend. Everyone should have a friend like her. Turns out only Chandler wanted to go. Josiah didn’t have a choice. He WAS going.
As soon as I put his bathing suit on him, Josiah began to fuss. He actually tried to yank his swim trunks off his body. He fussed all the way out the door. He fussed getting into the van. He fussed most of the way to my friend’s house.
When I pulled in the driveway, Chandler happily jumped out. She was in the gate and ready to go before Josiah was even out of the car. He wanted nothing to do with it. I literally had to pull him out of the van and help him walk to their back yard. He took one look at the pool, screamed and pulled his hair, hard.
Josiah was not interested in going in the pool. Even the hot tub, which is usually his favorite hang out, was unappealing. He plopped down on the ground. A few times he ran to the gate and tried to get out.
All the while I am thinking, this is supposed to be fun. This is supposed to be such a thrill I should have to drag him out of the water when it’s time to go home. This is supposed to wear my son out so we can all sleep tonight. Instead, I was the one wearing out.
In the end, Josiah put his feet in the water. He actually got in, up to his knees and walked around the hot tub some. Mostly, he laid on his tummy, with his belly on the edge and his feet dangling in. That surely was NOT going to exhaust him. And, it didn’t.
After about an hour or more, we packed it up. I drove home, we ate dinner and prepped for bed. Josiah fell asleep at 3 am. It’s a good thing I never got those sleep deprived kids to dig a hole for a built in pool in our backyard.
Time to come up with another plan.
