New approach

I love Ben with all my heart, but sometimes he has a bit of a stubborn/ridiculous/crazy side (all of which he gets from Jon)! Ben and Sam have been in the same room for over a month and it is still NOT going well. We decided to separate them for nap time because Sam wasn't sleeping. Ben now takes "naps" in our room. He still doesn't sleep most of the time, but at least he gets some down time and Sam gets some sleep.

Bed time is still a disaster. As soon as we leave the room, Sam throws his binky on the floor. Ben feels obligated to get it (even though we've told him its a game for Sam and to just leave it on the floor) so Ben gets out of bed and picks it up for him. After about the 20th time, Ben starts screaming at Sam about everything. EVERY NIGHT (seriously, every night over and over again) we hear, "Sam, don't throw the binky. Sam, stop talking. Sam, lay down. Sam, stop it. Sam, don't do it......." and on and on until Ben has a total melt down EVERY NIGHT! We were hoping they just needed some extra time to adjust, but its actually got worse, not better. Last night we decided to put Sam down first. We read a Bible story to Ben and spent some time talking about it and then let him watch a cartoon. Luckily, Sam had fallen asleep by the time the cartoon was over. We slipped Ben into his bed and he got to go to sleep in peace. It was wonderful.

I think we are going to put them to bed separately at least until Sam gets rid of the binky or Ben can tune Sam out at night. I don't know how things will work out of we put Ben to bed before Sam is asleep, but I'm hoping we are on the right track to a more peaceful bed time routine.