Snooze.

Ben has always been our sleeper. Leah was a good sleeper as a baby, but Ben topped her by sleeping through the night (like 11 hours through the night) at 3 months old. At about 18 months when Grandma was babysitting, he lead her to his crib when it was bedtime. He hardly ever squawked before going to sleep.

On top of all this, he has been a good napper, too! Leah was done with naps at 2 1/2, at which point she started to take "quiet times", listening to books on CD. My little man Ben was going strong with naps well past age 3. Even if he fell asleep in the van, we could transfer him to his bed just fine and he'd continue with the nap.

The fun and games began recently, though. Whereas previously laying him down for a nap was easy-peasy, there started to be some protest a few months ago. Then a few weeks ago he'd lay down for 15 minutes, then he'd come downstairs and say he wasn't sleepy. I learned my lesson with Leah - I spent more time fighting her about naps than she did actually "sleeping". So when he resisted, I said fine.

Okay, then, no more naps. He laid on the couch and rested while Leah listened to her stories, and it was going well. For about three days. Then the crabbies took over and we couldn't stand it anymore. He would nap if one of us slept with him - and depending on the day, this was good news! But not if Mommy had too much to do. And then there was the 15 minutes of crying and wailing when he woke up and discovered that the parent had woken and left the room before him.

Today was a "no nap" day. And at about 2pm, he says, "Me tiiired, Mommy." We headed to Target, and in the 10 minutes it took me to drive home at 4pm, he fell dead asleep. As in, Leah yelling in joy outside the van with the door open didn't disturb him. She left to go to friend Addie's house (the invitation which caused the joy), and I carried Ben into the house.

He slept on the couch for about half and hour until I woke him up. And it looks like we are back to naps. For at least another couple of days, anyway.