Monday, February 21, 2011

Still Needs Naps

During the Christmas Holidays we were pretty busy each day and that meant that a certain little boy did not get him naps most days. By the end of the two week break we had a little boy who suddenly decided that he no longer needed naps















Considering this little boy only recently dropped his two to three hour daily nap down to one to two hours each afternoon this was quite a change to suddenly go to no naps. A change he really wasn't ready for, but even when put in his room to nap, he discovered that he was not in trouble if he got out of his bed ... as long as he stayed in his room















And so, even when placed in his room again on a regular basis after the holidays were over he still would not nap most of the time. It was fun to play instead. While learning to stay in his room the full hour has been a bit of a problem, eventually a lock on the door got the hint across ... "you do not have to sleep, but you must have quiet time"














After a few weeks of "quiet time" instead of "nap time" his little body began to tell him (and the rest of the house) that he really wasn't ready for no naps and he really still needed to have his naps. Yes, he is three and a half, and yes many kids are done napping by this age ... but this little boys body still needs that daily rest.














Even though his mother made special effort to make sure he was home each day for his nap in order to get him back into routine, the pull to play instead of sleep was still there ... and play often won. But slowly sleep began to win also. As the weeks ticked by sleep would win half of the time over play. Often play would win for a short while, and then sleep would take over.
















It's always cute to see the various place that they suddenly doze off to sleep ... altho he hasn't been as creative as his sister, Rebecca, who we several times thought had gone missing, until we took a good look in the corners under her bed to find a girl curled up underneath there sound asleep. Most of the this little boy is smart enough to crawl back onto his bed, or the lazy boy in his room ... it's only been a couple times we've found him sprawled out on the floor.
















It's another step to reality ... we no longer have a baby in our house. Our little boy is growing up. Life is easier when you don't have to worry about naps all the time. It definitely has it's advantages ... I can get used to this ... but it's still difficult to let that reality sink in.















Sleeping babies are so adorable ... but sleeping toddlers are pretty cute also .
And so I couldn't resist to taking just a few pictures of "my baby" sleeping. ... who really still needs his naps

2 comments:

Corrina Kilfoy said...

awwww..........I did the same with my kids - you dont have to sleep but you do have to be in your room for quiet time and if i was lucky they would play for the first hour and just before they were allowed out they would fall asleep and i would get a bonus hour.......ah those were the days lol

Steph said...

Oh I love it when I get that extra hour. Too bad it's usually only 1/2 hour or so because then the girls are home ...but every little bit is enjoyed :)

I am so glad that I got in the habit of quiet time right from when the girls were little. They still have quiet time whenever they are home. Everyone in the house knows that for 1 hour after lunch it's quiet time. They actually for the most part enjoy it and Marietta has even asked during the summer if quiet time could be longer ... so she could read longer ... ah, who said you can't read outside of quiet time?

I find it's good for everyone in the house to take some down time, seperating the kids gives them a breather and they read or play really well during that time on their own. And of course Mom loves that quiet time ... I'll admit it, I can't do without my daily nap.

If you can endure through the training process it's well worth the benefits later!