I'm {TIRED} of It

All week McGee has been fighting having to take a nap. I'll even say he has been on a nap strike, missing yesterdays nap entirely and it looks like today he might not sleep either. Naptime is usually sometime between 1-2 pm depending on the day. He has been going down without crying, but then getting up every 5-10 minutes for different reasons ("I have to go pee-pee", "I have to go poo-poo", "I need something to drink", etc.) using all the old standby stalling techniques. In the end he just resorts to, "But I don't WANT to take a nap, I'm not TIRED!"

Yesterday about the 3rd time he got out of bed I heard him coming down the hallway saying in his happy sing-song voice, "It's light out now so I am AWAKE!" This time I asked if he wanted mommy just to lay down with him for a couple of minutes while he got sleepy. Of course he said yes and when we laid down he snuggled in oh so close to my face with his arms around me. It was nice and at first he was still. Then he started to take deep breaths and after a couple he said, "Mommy, you smell like ICE CREAM!" I said, "I do?" (I didn't tell him I'd just eaten a few bites from the freezer). He said, "Yes mommy, you smell like ICE CREAM!" He was so excited it was almost as if he thought that because he'd spoke the words "ice cream" into the air, he would inevitably be getting some ice cream soon. Well I knew laying down with him wasn't helping so once more I left him to try and go to sleep. Minutes later Grammy, Papa & Daddy arrived home and it wasn't long before this nap striker was running down the hallway again.

(This is what he looked like today while stalling from nap. He's so happy and proud of himself for coming up with clever reasons why he shouldn't have to take a nap. Too bad mom's not going for them!)

Today we went to the library and as we were getting in the car to come home we went over our game plan:

Mom: "McGee, what are we going to do when we get home?"

McGee: "We're going to eat lunch and take a nap."

I was so glad he had a good understanding of the game plan and was hopeful today we'd succeed with nap like it used to be. Unfortunately it was more of the same from the rest of the week. Cutesy comments of why he wasn't tired and the normal need to go potty. The 3rd time he got up I heard him coming down the hallway happily saying, "I am dressed now so I am AWAKE! I am dressed so I am AWAKE and that's the way it is supposed to be."

Mom: "Oh so that's the way it's supposed to be, huh?"

McGee: "Yes. I am dressed now so I'm AWAKE and that is the way Jesus wants it to be. It's good now because I'm dressed and awake and that's the way Jesus wants it to be."

Mom: Laughing, laughing, laughing...I couldn't help myself! This was such an odd response I thought and hilarious to boot! Is my 3 year old already trying to discern God's will for his life, or is he cunning enough now to try and use Jesus' name to be cute and get out of trouble? I'm still not sure on this one...

Either way,I am {tired} of this nap battle. All is quiet now so I'm guessing he must be asleep...but you never know. Oh and yesterday I came into his room to find that he had ripped up almost an entire book while he was supposed to be napping. He's never been destructive with books before and especially not when it was one of his favorite's. It was a Sesame Street book full of some of his favorite songs and their lyrics. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go through and sing them all before bed, but no more, the book has been destroyed. Now we just have the stack of ripped up pages to show Grandma & Grandpa when they come back from Alaska and McGee apologizes to them for destroying the book since they were the ones who gave it to him. Oh the joys of toddler/preschool stages...