At war

For the past few weeks, three-year-old Smella has been trying to give up her nap. It pains me. I used to put both babies down for the afternoon and have a good hour and a half to two hours all to myself until Big D came home from school. I would occasionally do a little happy dance in the hallway after shutting their door. I could do homework. I could nap. I COULD PEE ALL BY MYSELF.

But I realize that at some point, kids stop taking naps. I know this. Big D gave up his nap around this age. I also remember the godawful transition of it. Sure, Smella can survive without a nap, but is she pleasant? Uh, not always. If she doesn't nap in the afternoon, then you can count on a whiny, inconsolable mess of a preschooler around 6:30, which is way too early for bed. She's in that phase where she could still use a nap but is getting too old for one.

Another thing exacerbating the problem is that we converted her crib from a happy baby cage into a toddler bed. Smella discovered a few weeks ago that lo! she can climb out of a baby cage! Since it's dangerous for her to practice her Houdini-like skills with only Boobers as a back up, we took the rail off. And now keeping her in bed is a whole other exercise in self restraint. On both our parts.

While she's very cute and sneaky, she's not the most clever. Most of the time we know she's out of bed because of all the thumping she does. Girl hasn't perfected tip-toeing yet. When she decides to get out of bed and thump around, she likes to grab things that make noise. So if you missed the elephant-like sounds coming from her room, the singing and pinging of her Little Einsteins laptop will clue you in.

I've threatened with my ugliest mommy face, punished, cajoled, begged. Nothing works. She'll eventually go to sleep, sure, but first it's party time in the babies' room! I'll creep down the hall so she doesn't know I'm coming and fling open the door to catch her red-handed. Nothing phases her. She'll shuffle back to bed, promising to stay there, but only after she's completely exhausted will she fall asleep.

I suppose duct tape would be taking it a bit far, no?