Nap-time for Mommy!

For the past 6 months or so, my two-year old has given up on afternoon naps. I'm talking, no naps, no how. Of course, there has been the occassional falling asleep in the car late in the afternoon or falling asleep in precarious positions around dinnertime and sleeping until morning. We've even had an incident or two where he has fallen asleep in the double-stroller while we were out shopping. (Now that's a picture I should have taken, since there was absolutely no place for him to rest his head!). Putting him in his bedroom during the day would lead to a battle I didn't want to face, so I, too, gave up on him ever taking a normal nap again. All of my afternoon "mommy time" was lost and I had actually gotten pretty used to this idea (as sad as it may be...). So, you'd understand my pleasant surprise when his preschool teacher mentioned that for the past few weeks, he's been sleeping everyday (two days a week, that is) at preschool. When I picked him up on Thursday and he had been sleeping for over an hour, my hopes soared. Finally, Mommy will get her afternoon "chore/card-making/whatever-the-heck-I-want-to-do" time back! Yesterday was the first day I decided to try this. I had a splitting headache, and Hannah is still at an age where she will sleep whenever I stick a bottle in her mouth, so I thought it was going to be perfect. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Caleb was wiser than I thought. Caleb, Hannah and myself all cuddled in my bed. Hannah fell asleep and I was almost asleep, but Caleb was just a wiggle-worm. For over half an hour he talked, sang and imagined that his pillow was a big cake and it was someone's birthday. I finally had had it. I said "Caleb, you need to close your mouth, close your eyes, and try to relax your body so you can sleep." He looked at me and without missing a beat said "I'm trying, Mom, but it takes a long time!" Okay.... Today was attempt #2. This time, he wanted to sleep on the couch. I piled all the pillows and blankets he requested on top of him and told him to snuggle in. After a good 15 minutes of me pretending to be asleep on the other couch, Caleb got up from his couch and started walking away. I said "Hey, buddy! What do you think you're doing?" He said "I'm not tired. Thanks for trying." :p Maybe I got my hopes up too soon...