No More Naps for Nathan

For the last few months, putting Nathan down for his afternoon nap was a battle (most of the time).  There were a lot of tears (from him) and threats (from me) and even then, he didn't always sleep.  He was determined to not nap anymore, but I was determined that he was not ready to give up his nap yet.  Or, maybe I wasn't ready for him to give up his nap yet?  Matthew and Kayla stilled napped every day until they were just over three years old so I was assuming/hoping he would be the same.  I guess not!

Two weeks ago I still put him in his room for his nap, but didn't fight him if he didn't want to stay in there.  The first few times he came downstairs he came down slowly, with a sly grin on his face.  He knew that he was risking getting in trouble, and tried to be cute so I wouldn't get angry.  And I didn't get mad.

Nathan hasn't napped for two weeks now, and it's actually gone really well.  He typically has a slight melt-down around dinner time because he's exhausted, but a quick threat that Jon's going to help him eat (instead of me) if he doesn't sit at the table is all it takes to get him at the table and eating.  He's been under-the-weather for a few days so I couldn't convince him to eat dinner tonight, nor did I want to force him to eat it.

He now willingly goes to bed (most of the time only if I'm helping get him ready for bed, not Jon...have you noticed a theme?  Yes, he's become quite the Mommy's boy).  I've successfully put him to bed even before Matthew and Kayla have gotten ready for bed, which I'm pleasantly surprised about.  I thought for sure he would refuse to go to bed until the older two did, but I guess he's just so tired that he doesn't even care.

There are afternoons where I wish that he would fall asleep on the couch while watching a cartoon or during our drive home, but he typically doesn't.  Oh well!