Friday, September 21, 2007

Naps or Lack Thereof

People are generally shocked when they find out my 4-year-old naps every day for at least a couple of hours. Now, after they have seen his extreme energy level during the rest of the day, they usually understand a bit. But even with that, it's pretty remarkable that I've gotten the nap as long as I have.

Back in Seattle when I was working and had to do live interviews during working hours I NEEDED his nap, and I fought hard to keep it. Vacations, weekends, you name it, he was in a crib or bed by 1:30 p.m EVERY day. Seriously, i was the ultimate Nap Nazi. So that plus the fact that it may be hereditary--my husband apparently napped forever and still needs a lot of sleep--left me confident that we'd keep napping for awhile.

And with preschool from 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. (a long day!) and him seemingly exhausted at the end, I really wasn't figuring he'd give it up anytime soon. Of course just when I think I have things figured out they change... This week he's been on nap strike. Not ONE nap the entire week--all of a sudden. Quiet time, reading books, sure, but he just won't surrender and actually fall asleep.

So I thought, okay, maybe he's ready to give them up. Even said so much to my friend J during what should have been his quiet time. As soon as I hung up with her, we got in the car to go run a few errands (it was about 4:30 p.m.), and he promptly FELL ASLEEP.

UGH! So I think we're somewhere in the middle (I've heard about this annoying purgatory from many others) between nap and no nap. Upon further pondering, my thoughts are that this is a power thing for him--he gets that he's able to choose not to fall asleep, but really I think he likes (and needs) that extra sleep no matter how much he wants to deny it. And I'm hoping that soon he starts napping again.

Okay, and in other HUGE news--remember the bowl PB wanted sooo badly http://closetmom.blogspot.com/2007/08/bowl.html ? I actually found it tonight on a total whim!!! After a disappointing dinner at Applebee's--ugh! (only because others were too busy and we were hungry), I had to run into the local Winn Dixie for milk. As I was booking it back to the cashiers, I caught the coveted bowl out of the corner of my eye.

PB was thrilled! And honestly, it will be great to pack in his lunch and will save a bunch of world-polluting plastic bags. The negative is that he's already started to tell me about how only certain foods can go into certain colored sections ("in green can go honey dew and peas," he told me)--yeah, no, we're not even going there. I told him it's a magic bowl, and each day the Einstein characters would whisper in my ear what it wants in his/her section, and then it would be a surprise to him each day. We'll see how that goes.

I can't even go into the huge fit he threw in the bookstore today--books were thrown, stares were plentiful, he yelled, threw himself on the floor, etc. etc.--the stuff of parenting nightmares. I was a little shocked by it, because for the most part, he's a great, well-behaved kid. A tantrum like this I've only seen from him in recent years when he was on antibiotics (they make him crazy). But today's I can't blame on antibiotics unfortunately. I'm not sure what to blame it on. Of course there is the whole fact that he's been ripped away from the life he knew, his toys, stability, friends etc. hmmm...can I blame my cranky mood on that too?

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