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Hanni (2yr3mo) just gave up naps. Like, *just* gave them up. A week ago, she was napping for 3 hours every afternoon. She went through several days of on-again-off-again, and now they are just gone. Poof.

The up-side? She is no longer awake until 10:30 p.m. wanting to talk. The down-side? My childcare bill is about to double, because I absolutely cannot care for this child for as many hours as she is now going to be awake.

Oh, and we went through a few days where the naps were gone but she hadn't sorted out the night-time sleep. She was awake from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. the night before last, nursing, talking, flopping, until I was hallucinating pink elephants. My favorite moment: "This is your earlobe, mama. Boing. Boing. Boing."

But last night! Ah! She slept for 11 hours straight! I'm so relieved I could cry. (Of course, she woke up at 5:45 saying, "When Hanni is older Hanni will use a sharp knife and cook artichokes and cut them with the sharp knife and put them in the pot and they will take one hour. And Hanni will build a new house for Hanni to live in. When I older."

AAA-hahahaha!!!! This is how I feel when the babysitter leaves!

So glad there are others here who understand what "intense" means.

3 hour naps?!? I wish I had experienced that one at least once. Even as an infant my child never napped and if on those rare occasions where she finally did collapse, it was never for more than an hour/hour and half tops. Now DD will be turning 4 and has been going to a school that has a required nap time. Bhaha ... good luck with that. Once in a blue moon DD will actually take a nap at school and this is with the teacher sitting on the floor patting her back. The funny/strange thing is I just picked her up from school and on the way home she exclaimed that she wants to go to the public school by our house. I questioned why and the response was because she won't have to nap. I think she is out of luck on that one. Might be time for me to feel out the teacher and see if they are pressuring her to nap. I made it abundantly clear that DD is not a napper but she has moved up in class over the summer and the new teacher might not have that information.

Oh and the positive side for the non-napper ... yes I actually said positive side ... is they have a longer night time sleep pattern. Not saying DD's is extreme but we have always had a full night time sleep pattern from her from age 4 months on. We even get an early night out of it all since her bedtime is 7:30. I'm not completely convinced she sleeps all the way through the night because on the few occasions that I've had to sleep with her when on trips she would sit up in bed around 2 am and quietly play for about an hour before going back to sleep, but the saving grace is she has always been able to entertain herself for long periods of time and has never gotten out of bed looking for someone else to entertain her. Knock on wood that stays the same.

I am in love with this place! I did not even know there was word for this. I just called her non-stop. She just never stops. My mother-in-law lives on the east coast and rarely gets to see us. I just do not know how to explain to her what I am going through. At the end of my day with her my brain feels like mush.

I will hear Gillian on the moniter talking about the most random things when she wakes up. The most recent bizarre conversation she was having with herself in the crib went like this:

"Butterflies eat nectar from the flowers. Caterpillars eat leaves. Caterpillars turn into butterflies. Tadpoles turn into fogs...or toads. Frog and toad are friends. Oh, no there is a bee in my nose. Get out, bee! I'll put the bee on the flower. Bees eat nectar, too. I am just eating my boogers. Ew, ear wax is yucky...Mommy, I'm awake!"

Thankfully she sleeps in late. But, that really sets the tone for the day, if you know what I mean. And, I think you all do!

I have a no-napper as well. It is also nice to know I was not the only one with a child who only napped for 45 minutes at a time.

Oh, and DD is sitting on the potty right now flipping through catalogs doing BM.

10 apples, my 27 month old reads on the toilet, too! Just like his brother and Daddy! DS1 used to spend HOURS on the potty studying his Thomas catalogs. When he was 4 he started reading the WSJ. We thought he was just imitating DH, but then one day at dinner he asked us what we thought about housing prices dropping. Pretty funny! Lucklly, DS2 is still a Dr. Seuesser. Today's BM was brought courtesy of "Hop on Pop." LOL

The rest of my afternoon looks positively restful since he just took a 3 hour nap. My fingers and toes are crossed that he doesn't drop it anytime soon. That's precious time for DS1 and me!

I wish DD would give up her nap! Her nap just means that she always ends up going to bed way later than she should, which makes her crankier in the morning. Days that she doesn't nap she actually sleep a lot more total hours and wakes up so much happier. But, before bedtime it can be horrible!

Oh, and we have a toilet reader. This is DD's book: http://www.amazon.com/Potty-Me-Lift-Flap-Instruction/dp/0689874235
We read that book ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, she wakes up in the middle of the night asking for it! But yeah, she's been on the potty for 1hr+ just reading that book over and over and over again.

And I agree, I really like having this board because at least there are other families out there that are dealing with this craziness!

I was reminded of this thread today....

DD was playing with her doll when she decided that her doll needed to go potty. So we grabbed a megablock that was laying nearby and put her doll on their to pee. She then asked for her favorite book and "read" to her doll on the potty. Some of it was just nonsense but she made sure to point out the daddy and the baby in the book and tell her doll all the animal names and what sounds they make. Also, she'd check every now and then to see if her doll had peed or not. I was just trying not to giggle while she was doing it, it was so cute!

Does anyone else's kid "read" books with nonsense syllables? Hanni will announce that she is going to read, then hold the book and say things like "Hongo sayo nayno" and "Psycho mango," then finish with "The end." It's hilarious!

This morning DD just started to do this! We had the The Gruffalo's Child out and she started pointing at the different words in title and saying some nonsense. Although, she might have said "child" but I wasn't sure. She did it for two more pages but then got bored and gave me the books so I could read it to her.

And another thing... it must be something about Sundays, they are always the worst days! Yesterday was... wow. Again, she only slept about 8 hours at night and it took FOREVER to get her to sleep despite the fact that we walked almost the entire day yesterday and she got to play with a ton of other little kids! We really tried our best to wear her out but had no luck at all.