Revised schedule #2 / No means NO

Instead of 8p, I decided that 8:30p might be more realistic to shoot for as the ultimate bedtime. I revised my schedule:

7:00a - Breakfast
8:10 - Nikko off to school
10:00 - mid morning snack if needed
10:30 - Audrey's nap #1
11:20 - Nikko home from school
11:30 - lunch
1:00 - Ronin's nap
2:30 - Snack time
4:15 - Audrey's nap #2
6:00 - Dinner
7:20 - Audrey's bath time
7:40 - Audrey's bed time
7:45 - Nikko & Ronin's bath time
8:15 - Stories and prayers
8:30 - Nikko & Ronin's bed time

I tried really hard to stick to it. I also gave the kids cold medicine before bathtimes because they all have drippy noses and coughs. At story time, Nikko fell asleep while Denis was reading about Cars. I calculated that he had been awake for 13 hours straight (woke up at 7a) so he got tired without a nap. At his previous bedtime, Nikko was awake for 14.5+ hours, so maybe he really needs an earlier bedtime. This is only night #1, so we'll see. Things are dicey because the babies are sleeping with stuffed-up noses. I will be watching their wake-up times and if they are consistent, then this is the schedule we'll adopt. If they keep waking up at 4 or 5, however, I might push it forward again. Daylight savings time helped a lot, actually, because Nikko woke up at 7a, which in reality is 6a as of last week, so it didn't seem harsh to me at all.

Nikko was in good spirits today and had a good ABA session with Melissa. She said that he really liked the bubbles when she took them out. He had just finished jumping on the foof chairs when she pulled out bubbles and he stopped to calmly watch them. It's been awhile since he's seen bubbles. Melissa also mused about the fruit snacks. She used them with Nikko and he seemed unwilling to cooperate unless he had them all. Nikko watches very sharply when you have a coveted food. I know this because he's done it to me many, many times where he can see if I've hidden it behind a bag, or if there's more left at the bottom of a bag, or if it's truly gone. An hour before dinnertime I had just finished some garlic bread and was preparing dinner when Nikko said, "Cheese," referring to the Parmesan cheese I grated on the garlic bread. He wanted some. Now. I told him no, dinner was in an hour. Nikko got really angry and was running back and forth between rooms, whipping his burp cloth around like a propeller. He was whining and throwing himself on the kitchen floor, but I stood my ground because I really didn't want him to spoil his dinner appetite. Instead, I tried to redirect him with tickles and with watching Finding Nemo. Because I stayed out of the kitchen, he did loosen up and gave up his attempts to get me to change my mind. While I am happy that Nikko can say a concrete word and put it in the form of a "request," and that I should reward the positive behavior, sometimes no means NO. I had to try to make him understand that he wasn't going to get what he wanted this time. And when I reach the point of no return, that giving in to a demand would lose the lesson, I really have to keep being consistent or I'll feel steamrolled.