Telling Time
Hannah cannot tell time. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise and I've clearly known this, but it sometimes surprises me in the ways it manifests itself. I don't live by a rigid schedule and I don't wear a watch (although my cell phone plays the role) but I am always aware of the time in general. Hannah, on the other hand, bases her sense of time on the light outside and when she last slept. This usually works fine, but if her schedule gets off she can get confused very easily.
Last week we were out on Sunday afternoon and she didn't get her regular nap. By five o'clock when we headed home she was tired and fell asleep for the twenty minute drive. When she woke up as we went inside, she saw that it was dark out, knew that she was tired, and figured it must be bed time. Sure enough, she asked to go to bed, and by six o'clock she was out for the night (and slept through the night).
This weekend she fell asleep around 3 for her nap (about an hour later than usual). She had been tired and a little sick (just a typical winter cold) and so slept for three hours. When she woke at six she was so out of it and confused by the time that an hour later she was ready to go back to sleep.
Both times she was clearly off schedule and needed the sleep, but had she been able to read a clock I think she would have realized how early it was and would have stayed up. Too often we need to get to bed early but when we the clock reads eight (or nine or ten, whatever counts as early for each of us) we tend to stay up and find something to do. When you can't read a clock, your internal clock overrides any external sense of time and you end up listening to your body more. It's been a reminder to me that there is something to be said for a simpler way of managing a day and to eat and sleep not when an alarm goes off or a clock says to but simply when it we feel it is time.
And that's my latest excuse why we're always late getting places.
Some photos from the past weeks:
