My Convertible Life

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Can Quiet Time Actually Include Some Quiet?

Over the past couple weeks, Pippi has graduated from an afternoon nap to quiet time.

And by "graduated," I mean "broke mommy's heart and destroyed any chance to get an hour alone." And by "quiet time," I mean "45 minutes of Pippi trying not to stay in her room and definitely not being quiet."

But it was getting impossible to put her to bed before 9 p.m. and that just created another big mess. So we decided to bite the bullet and let her give up the nap in exchange for a 7 p.m. bedtime.

Most days, she's spent her quiet time hopping in and out of her room, running to the potty, asking for help getting various costumes on and generally demanding lots of attention. It was basically 45 minutes of work for me and no rest time for her.

Then I tried putting the baby gate at her door to keep her contained. Several minutes later, when she appeared downstairs at my elbow, I asked her how she got out.

With a stern face and loud voice she announced, "I stomp on that gate!" Well, so much for that plan.

So today, she was actually staying in her room, playing and singing and entertaining herself for a good 30 minutes. I was so impressed and hoping for just 15 minutes more when she started calling for me from the top of the stairs. After attempting to negotiate another 5 minutes and watching her despair across the top of the stairs in a dramatic whine, I walked away and went back to my work. (And by "work," I mean "Twitter." Let's be honest.)

Several minutes passed and I suddenly realized it was totally quiet upstairs. Crap, I thought. She's either silently dismantling the bathroom sink or she snuck into my room and emptied my dresser drawers.

When I turned the corner to head upstairs, here's what I found:

That's right. She's SOUND ASLEEP, wearing only her princess undies, in the exact spot where I left her whining about not wanting to stay upstairs. Clearly she still needs a nap -- she just doesn't want to be told to take one.

Here's a closer view of her sweet face:

When she finally woke up, she was covered in carpet creases and her left hand was asleep. She'd been sleeping so hard, she almost tumbled down the stairs trying to get up because she had no idea where she was. Fortunately, I was there to catch her -- because obviously I was taking pictures for the blog (duh).

So there you have it. Even the most stubborn three-year-old can still be conquered by the need to nap.

What's the strangest place you've found your child asleep? And speaking of children napping in crazy places, if you haven't seen Naps Happen, go check out this blog immediately.
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9 comments:

  1. I love this post! I may just start saying things like "I stomp on that gate" at work just to see what happens!

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  2. Fabulous! And I love "I stomp on that gate!" Awesome!

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  3. Similar story: we once found our son asleep right outside of the locked door to our daughter's room. We had put them to bed at 8 and found him around 11. That was the night our daughter discovered that her bedroom door could lock. We can only imagine the sheer bliss of that discovery..

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  4. 1. I love your writing. Fabulous.
    2. I love your daughter. So cute.
    3. Can't wait for Holden.

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  5. This is hilarious and she is beautiful. And good catch.

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  6. That is the most gorgeously-napping girl I have ever seen.

    Miss A gave up the nap, so i told her FINE! But you HAVE to lay on the couch and watch tv under a blanket instead!

    She lays there all smug, thinking about how she totally got her way then passes out cold on the couch.

    Bwah ha haaaaaa....

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  7. Adorable. L also has "quiet time" now, which basically consists of him asking if it's over yet and me yelling no for 45 minutes to an hour. So restful!

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  8. So cute. Sleeping children are the best. They look precious AND they are blessedly quiet.

    Recently my 2yo fell asleep in one of those little tunnels kids can crawl through. It was the cutest, funniest thing because she never sleeps in odd places. Ran to get the camera to take a picture (for the blog, of course) and she woke up. Total bummer - was going to send it to Naps Happen...

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