War Wounds

Most of my children have always been good nappers. Dane will still take naps if I lay down with him. Often, of weekends, we get him down for a nap.

Daelyn still takes naps, but I've been trying to break him, because he starts school in September, and naps will become a thing of the past. So, about every other day or so, I skip his naptime. Most days, he gets very grumpy, but at least he settles down to bed with his siblings at 7:00.

Sunday, we were shopping for my bike, and he didn't get a nap. On Monday, despite our busyness, I got him down. He was falling asleep in the van. Yesterday, we met my sisters for lunch to celebrate one of their birthdays. By the time we got home, we needed to pick up the other two from school - no afternoon nap for him.

I got the children's dinner on the table last night, then began to do some cleaning. I wasn't going to eat since I had such a late lunch, so I started on some much-needed projects in the living room. All of a sudden, I heard Daelyn shriek. I ran to the table and found him lying on the floor.

He had fallen off the bench and hit his eye on the corner of it. He cut his cheekbone and had a black and blue mark, swelling as I watched it. It took some time to calm him down. Showing him the boo-boo in the bathroom mirror seemed to help stop the crying.

Today, he's got a nice shiner - the war wounds of a 4-yr. old. But I may need to reassess the nap situation. When he's so tired he can't even sit at the table without falling off his seat, a good hard look at his rest patterns is in order.