Between a nap and a hard place

I know I have written about nap time over and over to the point of redundancy, but it's a big part of our lives and has been since September 22, 2003, the day Jack was born. It's what moms plan schedule's around, what we talk about at the park (well, sometimes) and what can make us totally happy or super irritated. Naps. Can't they just be easy. For Christ's sake.

I told myself when Riley was born that I just wanted Jack to nap through the holidays. Many of his friends began dropping their naps last summer, around the time when most of them were turning three or getting close. Fortunately for me, Jack napped like a champ until the holidays! Well, after Christmas it was hit or miss for a month or so. He'd go for two or three days without one, and then suddenly crash one afternoon for a couple of hours. If we had a super busy morning or he had school it was a no brainer- nap for sure.

Then the last month or so nap time has been declining rapidly. In fact, the only nap Jack has taken in the last two weeks was two weeks ago when we went to Monkey Joe's, a jump castle place, where he proceeded to jump for 1 1/2 hours and then crash w/o eating lunch. Nice.

Now, I don't mind if he naps or not. Riley's naps are still nothing to write home about so it actually frees us up to head to the park earlier or play outside more or do afternoon playdates that we've only done late in the day until now. BUT, yes there is a BUT. IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO NAP, YOU CANNOT, i repeat, CANNOT, be a cranky-whiney-I'm going-to-be-a-pain-in-the-ass-child about everything.

UGH......

By late in the day, I have a super whiney child who needs a nap, but it's too close to bedtime. I actually tried to get him to nap today b/c he was exhausted after school but the "I'm not a baby mom, I'm a big boy" came out and I relented to letting him "rest" in the playroom.

Since he's not napping he hits the sack by 7:30 at the latest. Great huh? Nope. He's back to waking up at 6:15 ish... No can do my friend. It's a vicous cycle that needs to work itself out.

Well, it's 6:54 and Jack is in the playroom (Riley's asleep). Time to get him ready for bed.

Until next time....