No More Naps

Kyle stopped napping just before his 3rd birthday .  The girls were about 3 1/2 when they stopped napping. If Kyle takes a nap, he doesn't fall asleep until 9:30 pm or later.  He's not usually cranky in the evenings, so we have stopped fighting him to take naps. 

Since he dropped his naps prematurely, some days he falls asleep on a 10 minute car ride. 

Or on the couch while watching TV.

On a bike ride with Daddy

Or in Mommy's arms!

Fading Naps

The time has come when Makena is going to stop taking naps. She only takes a couple every week now. She will stop taking naps at a slightly younger age than Karis which surprises me. Makena has always needed more sleep than Karis and usually takes pretty long naps.  

It'll actually make bedtime easier when Makena stops taking naps. She's not tired at bedtime on days she takes naps and then comes out of her room a lot after we put her down. This keeps Karis up and keeps her from falling asleep. 

I can usually tell on the days when Makena is going to need a nap. Half the time she obliges and goes to her room to lie down. But sometimes she pushes back and it's pretty funny. In a whiney voice she tells me, "I've taken lots of naps already." Or the other day when she was losing the argument, she turned and marched to her room saying "I'm going to take three more naps and THAT'S IT!" 

Today's Nap

These days Kyle has been sleeping with his giraffe lovey and two beanie baby dogs...and of course his supply of pacifiers. Some days, he picks a random thing to sleep with. It's usually whatever toy he's holding in his hand when I'm putting him down for a nap. Today it was Daddy's hat he had been wearing. 

Soon there won't be any room left in the crib with the way he's been growing lately and with all the stuff he's sleeping with!

Miss Cranky-No-Nap

I think it's funny when people on Facebook tell me that my kids are always happy. I think the better, more truthful comment would be, "You always take pictures when your kids are happy." But doesn't everybody? Maybe I should start posting photos like this on Facebook: 

It wouldn't be hard to take photos of unhappy kids these days. Since Karis has dropped her nap, she has been a wee bit cranky. She needs more sleep each day, but because she shares a room with Makena, she doesn't get the sleep she needs. Makena takes a 2+ hour nap each day, so she doesn't need as much sleep at night. Each night Makena often get out of bed for one reason or another (e.g., bathroom, can't find a stuffed animal, has a question). She's also usually the first one up in the morning and will wake Karis up from her slumber. 

We're working on trying to get Karis more sleep at night. But for now, we're in this tough period as Karis' body adjusts to not napping. During the day, there's a whole lot of whining and drama. She's definitely not her usual self. It's slowly getting better and we'll be SO happy when we get past this.

I have to say, the one (and perhaps only) nice thing about all this is that she's not as anxious to get out and do something every day. She used to always ask me, "What are we going to do today?' because she  wanted to go out and do something new. But nowadays, since she's been tired, she's okay with spending a day or two at home playing with Makena. And they play up in their room for a long time.

Skipping, Swinging and Naps

Karis has learned how to skip! She can also pump her legs and swing on her own. It's so fun for her and she now spends most of her time on the swings at the park.

Not so good news... she no longer naps. Thankfully, she's gotten better about staying quiet so that I can get a little shut eye. I've had to teach her what is a good reason to wake me up and what is not. If you are bleeding, then you can wake mommy up. And needing a piece of paper -- uh, no. That is not a good reason.