The plus side of this whole no nap business

In March, before Gabriel started school, I was afraid we were losing Gabriel's nap. After stomping my feet like a child and arguing with a 3-year old (futile, obviously, because the 3's are tricky business) for the last four months to force/coerce/trick/bribe him to nap, I've given it up. Put up the white flag. Thrown in the towel.

For a long time, I was able to convince him that I "needed help" putting Jonas to sleep in the afternoon to get him to lay down with me and then eventually fall asleep, but that just isn't working anymore. He gets bored and starts flicking Jonas or picking his nose and all the other weird things little boys do. The funny thing is that once he falls asleep, homeboy will sleep for 3-4 hours if I let him.

It's just not worth it, though. The fighting. It's a whole lot of energy that is much better spent on other things. Like doing a craft with him or running amuck or something. Not pressuring him to nap when he clearly has no desire to. I will say, though, it is extremely difficult to keep a 3.5 year old busy all day long. There's only so much coloring, painting, lego-ing and reading you can do while juggling a 6 month old and cleaning the house. [Suggestions for activities are always appreciated.] To be honest, boy 3pm, I wouldn't mind hiding in a closet just to get 3 seconds to think for myself without the constant chatter...not that I don't love my boy, but man, he can talk. Just add that to the list of things he gets from me...

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After I got done mourning the loss of my treasured alone time [especially around 2pm when Gabriel was playing 20-thousand-million-billion questions], it dawned on me...no nap equals early bed time. My lips curled into a devious grin. Cue the Dr. Evil laugh, mwuuuaaahahahaa. Obviously, he'll need some designated rest time so we don't go crazy, but I could definitely get used to an earlier sleep schedule...

You see, I had both children asleep last night by 7:30pm. My husband was gone. My sister moved out. Just me. No dinner dishes to clean up. It was heaven. I watched whatever I wanted to, ate my own dinner, stayed up late doing absolutely nothing.

So maybe this whole no napping business isn't so bad after all...

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