A Fun Little Tip

Last night, Mom shared with me a really great tip that she used to get me to "nap" when I was about 3 years old. She says that, rather than struggle with me to get me to sleep every afternoon, she decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Instead, she got down on my level and said, "Jessie, I know you're not sleepy, but it's time for your nap. I'll bet that if you go into your room, close the door, and play quietly with your toys, I'll think you're asleep. I'll bet that you could trick me!" She says that I caught onto that really quickly, and I'd go into my room, close the door, and just play and play until I would finally fall over, asleep. I think that's a really great tip to try! Right now, Evie hates naptime because she's afraid of missing anything and she wants to play all the time. So we give her a bottle and put her to bed so she can drink herself into a sleepy stupor. (I know, I know: her teeth are going to rot out of her head. Shame on Mommy!) It really works for us, though. At least for right now, until we can reason with her a little more. When she's older, I'm going to try and use Mom's tip to see if I can get Evie to "trick" me into thinking she's napping. It's worth a try, anyway, because it'll save more energy than wrestling her into her bed to take a nap every afternoon. I'm also going to try asking her if she wants to nap with Mommy sometimes. That way, it'll seem fun for her, and I'll get a chance to take a nap myself! These seem like genius ideas to me, and I can't wait to try them out on my babies.