Our house is, it seems, officially a nap free zone. (Insert sighing smiley face here:)) I know I've been a little nap spoiled for the past three years. When we first moved to Charlottesville Evelyn was giving me two- two and a half hour naps every day. Sometimes two three and a half hour naps. There was so much napping that I thought, "hey, now would be a good time to get my PhD!" That whole plan went south when, right as I was turning in my application, she switched to one nap and I began to see the error of my ways. But for the past year and a half she has continued to sleep for three hours every day, down at noon, up in time to get the bus at 3:15. Time enough to clean up and do some writing and get the laundry folded or the bathrooms scrubbed or whatever chore was on my "today's To Do" list.
This summer her nap shifted, later and shorter, 2-4 maybe, more often 3-4, but it was still a nap. I was in denial that the end was near. Sure it would be nice to be able to run errands or have play dates past 12, but I NEEDED those precious naps. But ever since school started the naps have been infrequent and rough, and this week they disappeared altogether. S0 now instead of spending my afternoon writing in peace, I'm standing at the kitchen counter squeezing in a few minutes while she is playing with her brother, checking every few minutes to make sure she hasn't crashed out on the couch which would mean a horrible struggle at bedtime.
But I do admit that Ive been spoiled. By comparison, Briton had pretty much dropped any sense of a nap by the time he was two. TWO. Of course, back then I had a three hundred square foot apartment to clean, which took all of ten minutes to do, and no other child to deal with. So the lack of nap really just mean more time to be out in the city riding trains and buses and visiting museums and shops and popping in on friends.
So the big dinners that I start at nap have gone by the wayside. Tonight we are having tomato soup and grilled cheese which I can work on between sentences. There will probably be a lot of crock-potting in my future as well. And while I'll miss the "me" time, I'm actually looking forward to having some of the "we" time that I so cherished with Briton. The after the chores are done, go out and have some fun times. Because next year is preschool,and after that is Kindergarten, and then I wont have any stay at home kids to stay at home with. Which is another end of an era, but not one I'm anywhere near ready to deal with. Not quite yet anyway. We'll see how I feel after a few more weeks of no naps.