Sooner or later...

Well folks, it was bound to happen at some time, but it sure caught me by surprise! So, there have only been 5 days in Elise's entire life that she has not taken a nap. The first one was in January when we drove from Texas to Alabama. We left around 7 am and she didn't fall asleep until 8 pm (not fussy, just not a car sleeper). The second and third days were the travel days from Alabama to Texas and then Texas to Baltimore. Again, she was not fussy, but she just doesn't sleep in a car or on a plane. Last Wednesday was Day #4, the first day ever that she has not fallen asleep when put in her crib for a nap. I watched in amazement on the video monitor as she did somersaults, played with her blankets and pillow, and just talked to herself happily for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. I was in complete shock. You see, Elise had ALWAYS fallen asleep very quickly for her naps. Sometimes she will talk for a while when falling asleep at night, but never during nap time. Anyway, what surprised me more is that she was super happy the whole rest of the day. Thankfully, she did take a 2 hour nap on Thursday, but played/talked in her crib for Friday's nap. We made sure to be very active on this weekend and she took 2 hour naps again. Thus begins the (hopefully very) long process of weaning from 1 nap to 0 naps. Sigh.

I'm not sure if it started because she is sleeping a little longer at night (12-12.5 hours usually), but I figure since she wakes up happy in the morning and wakes up happy from her nap, there isn't much I can do except to continue "nap" time as scheduled and leave her in her crib for the 2 hours whether she sleeps or not. I don't think she's realized that she didn't fall asleep on Wednesday or Friday, because when I went to get her she proudly exclaimed "I woke up from my nap!", to which I replied, "Yes, you did!". At least we have some nice weather so that we can comfortably play outside and stay as active as possible.

She's really excited because gymnastics starts on Wednesday and she gets to meet her preschool teacher on Thursday. I'm excited because these are two activities that she will really enjoy regardless of the weather. Here's hoping that 1-3 pm will continue to be productive hours for me instead of hours spent glued to the video monitor!

Here's a picture of my "dancing queen"... I think it's funny that the middle of the picture is focused but you can tell how much she's moving with the rest of her body. The girl LOVES to dance.