The Power of a Nap

I DROVE AROUND AIMLESSLY FOR 1.5 HOURS, JUST SO MY TODDLER WOULD SLEEP…

Let me first preface this post by saying I’m not a huge fan of talking about poop. Kid poop, adult poop, animal poop…I mean, I know Everybody Poops, but I’m just not one to get into the gory details. That being said, against my better judgment, the p-word does come up a few times below. Consider yourself warned :)

In my house, if poop happens during naptime, well, there goes naptime….

Little Man usually does his "business" in the morning, and if he doesn’t, like clockwork, it’s after lunch. Usually while enjoying a little quiet, winding down time, perhaps reading a book…(I can totally see how the whole man-reading-in-bathroom phenomenon began)

I came home from work around 1, fired off the usual questions to my babysitter: How was he? Did he eat? Did his congestion get a little better? How many munchkins did he have on the way home from Dunkin? But of course I forgot to ask if he pooped… and he was already down for his nap.

All was quiet, so I thought to myself, Great! I can eat lunch, catch up on some emails, maybe flip through the new Antropologie catalog...

Then, I heard it. Some rustling coming from the upstairs. I ignored it at first, hoping it would go away…but it continued. I heard Lamby and Giraffey hit the floor. Then “down”….”down”…..”down”…

I went up, and sure enough, poop. Changed him, re-tucked him in, knowing full well that there was a 2% chance he would actually re-settle for a nap. He didn’t.

So, in the car we went. The one place that does to him, what Benadryl does to me. About 3 minutes into the trip I could see his little head go from looking out the window, to tilting sideways on the carseat. Fast asleep he fell for the ride. 1.5 hours just driving aimlessly on the highway, letting him snooze, while I listened to the radio and just had some quiet thoughts to myself. He woke up just in time to greet his sister off of the bus, with a wave, and a big smile on his face.

I know that I wasted gas on this trip, driving with no particular destination. But for me, and for him, it was well worth it. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend that time with him, awake and playing, but he still really needs that sleep during the middle of the day. If he didn’t get it, we’d all be paying for it later. So, he got some much needed rest, which saved us all from a super- cranky- melting –down- dinnertime toddler, while I got to recharge my batteries from work mode to mom mode. And we were all much better off because of it.

See? I told you it wouldn’t all be about poop.

A scene from our favorite book!