I do my best to make good use of Owen’s naptime.  Sam and I make a point to do something that would be more difficult with Owen awake.  With the nice weather, we usually end up outside; Sam riding his bike while I work in the yard.  But we can usually find something fun inside, too!

It didn’t take long for finger painting to turn into body painting, or for a rolling pin to turn into motorcycle handlebars.

{May 2010}

“No!  I’m NOT going to take a nap today!”  Said while stomping his foot and swinging his indignant fist.  “It’s not my naptiiiiiiime!  I don’t need a NAAAAAAP!”  Little does he know, the worse he reacts, the firmer I am in my conviction to MAKE. HIM. NAP.  Sometimes, though, he just doesn’t give in.  But I definitely don’t stop him from thinking he has to be sneaky about playing quietly in his room.

The other day I got in the shower while Owen napped and Sam “napped.”  When I came out, I found someone hanging out on my bed.  Wearing completely different clothes than when I last saw him.  He didn’t hear me.

But then he heard the camera, and knew he was caught.  Busted.

I chuckled at the obvious expression of guilt.  “Sam, it’s ok.”  And that was all he needed.  “Oh I’m not in trouble?!”

“No, Samuel, you’re not in trouble.  What are you doing?”  “I’m fishing, Mom!”  Duh.

Sam won this naptime battle.  But only because I let him.

Naptime is virtually non-existent around here.  Samuel has about 50% consistency and Owen has about -18% consistency.  Those rare moments when they both go down at the same time is just tempting fate.  Recently, I had put Owen down asleep, and attempted to get Samuel to do the same.  Each in his respective room, I left the boys upstairs while I went down to work on laundry.  About 3 minutes later I heard Owen in the monitor.  Dang.  About 3 seconds later I heard Samuel in the monitor.  I listened for several minutes as these two chatted and had their own little conversation.  I only understoond half of it, but I had no doubt they each knew what the other was saying.  Then O started fussing a bit, and I heard Sam say, “Hey what’s wrong Baby Owen?  You ok?  Want some toys?”  I couldn’t resist, so I sneaked in with the camera.  I literally crawled on the floor and held up the camera so I wouldn’t be spotted coming in.  Thinking I would surprise them, I was the one surprised when I saw that Samuel wasn’t just peaking over the edge of Owen’s bed like I had expected . . .

Yep . . . he was IN the bed . . . Busted!

Samuel has somehow got it in his head that he doesn’t need to nap anymore.  Often, I’ll tell him it’s naptime, only to be challenged with a, “No naptime.  Sit pillow and blanket, watch tee-bee.”  Then Sam gets comfy.

I sometimes humor him.  “Ok, if you stay right there and rest, you don’t need naptime.”   Of course I make that offer knowing exactly what’s going to happen next.