Problems, Solutions

For weeks now, maybe a couple months, Annie has been right on the verge of completely giving up her nap. (Here is where Sarah feels oh-so-sorry for me, poor me, whose four-year-old is FINALLY stopping the nap . . . ) And I know, I know: she's FOUR. It's really not that I even mind that she gives it up, because she'll go days and sometimes weeks without it, and now that I've come to expect that she's going to do an hour of "quiet time" and then come out to play, I actually enjoy the time we have together while Jemma's still sleeping. I just wish I knew she was totally, completely over it so that we could plan our days a little differently (afternoon playdates, anyone?).

But.

Approximately once every week or two, Annie becomes a total wreck. She starts out first thing in the morning, yelling, flailing, falling apart. BECAUSE SHE'S BEEN GETTING UP AT SIX AND IS EXHAUSTED. Yesterday was one of those days. After breakfast, around 8:30, she got back in her bed and said, "I want my doop." But since she had school at 9:00 (for which we were late because she refused to get her boots on and ran away to hide behind the living room chair every time I suggested it), an 8:30 a.m. nap was not in her future.

After school, the drama continued. First she laid right out on the carpet in her classroom and refused to put her coat on, then she informed me she was going to "sit right here in this chair and not go home with you, poopy. Throw-up. Stinky." The ride home was continued awesome, as were our first ten minutes or so inside the house. Annie ended up eating lunch alone in her room, Where The Wild Things Are style. When she was done, she climbed into bed and fell promptly asleep at 12:45.

She woke up two hours later, feeling and acting a million times better, and Jemma woke up a little after three. We drew pictures together, danced to Christmas music (no, it is not too early to listen to Christmas music), and had a fun afternoon inside despite the cold rain. I made dinner around 5:00, we ate together, and then I looked at the clock. It was 5:22.

Since both girls had taken good naps, I figured I had another two hours to kill before I could start the bedtime routine. It was dark, it was raining, and we were tired of being in the house together. Ahh, days of taking a walk after dinner, I miss you already.

So, we went to the pool. I packed their jammies so we could shower there and just pop them in bed when we got home. And they loved it. We take them all the time, but last night was the first time we'd ever gone when it was dark, and they thought it was awfully fun to look out the big glass windows at the dark night, feeling like they were staying up late and getting away with something. Annie jumped in and let herself go under a couple of times (which is big progress for her) and Jemma just hung out with me in her life jacket, squirting a little fish at my head. We went in the sauna for just a minute to warm up after we were done swimming, and then I blew-dry their hair before we put their rain boots on with their jammies and headed back home in the night, all cozy in the car, listening to more Christmas music. Watching them clomp down the gym hallway, damp and rosy-cheeked, I loved them so much.