To Nap or Not To Nap?

That is the question. And believe me, I thought I knew the answer. When Harry was young, anytime he slept was good. So if he did nap, we let him. We tried to get him to nap almost every waking moment. If he had just woken up, we were counting down the minutes to nap him again. This continued until he was 2 days old, and then we threw everything out the window, and flew by the seat of our pants.

Really, my kids seem to drop naps about the time I need them the most, around 18 months. When a single morning can reduce me to tears, because of a fighting match over getting out of the filthy batman pjs. Around 18 months they find out that they have certain SUPERPOWERS over mom, and they use them. They avoid the nap, and since I am a pushover, I let them. I let them because if they stay up for 18 hours continuously, then they tend to fall asleep better. And by better, I mean faster. So if they don't want to nap, why force them?

However there is a down side to the no nap policy. Just because they "don't nap" doesn't mean they are NOT tired, they can and will accidentally fall asleep as we are driving somewhere (in this case to a cousin b-day party about 35 minutes away). NO big deal right?? Wrong, if Chilly naps at any point during the time he first opens his eyes in the morning, he will not go to sleep until about 11:45pm. No matter if he got a mere 30 second nap, he will not go to sleep until 11:45. Period. It is like he is on some sort of freaked out Christmas tree timer. And that timer went off due to a power failure, and has reset himself to go off at midnight.

There does seem to be a cure for this non-sleep-nap delay he gets set too. Hours of mommy singing, snuggling, and finally a snuggle from dad. It is cute, and sweet, and after my last post, you'd think I'd welcome it a bit more. And I do love it. There is something precious to snuggling up to your wiggling 2 year old, and him smiling back. To looking across the room to your 5 year old signing "I love you". These moments are to be cherished. And they are. Why can't they be this sweet during normal business hours?