Something occurred to me this weekend. When a child is first born, the baby takes a lot of naps. As the baby gets older he or she will take fewer naps, while at the same time increasing their ability to interact with their parents and the world. At a certain point the child will stop napping altogether. According to BabyCenter.com, the average age to stop napping is between three and four years. At this time, a child is also able to talk and play independently.
Naps are a built in mechanism for kids that benefit both parents and child. It provides the child with a mental break from the massive amount of learning going on, and as the kid gets older and understands their world better, they don't need this break. For the parents, it provides both a mental and physical break from raising a toddler which needs a lot of attention. When naps stop between 3 or 4, the child does not need as much attention, and therefore the parents don't need the break as much.
You may be asking yourself, what's the point of this soap box discussion on naps? Ashlyn, our wonderful little child who we adore so much, decided that she would stop napping this weekend. This was a “wonderful” development. We spent most of Tuesday evening at Cook's Children's hospital after Ashlyn got the croup, then spent the following nights with little sleep as we tried to help Ashlyn through the nightly coughing. So going nap-free all weekend has officially wore us out. Here's to hoping that naps get back into the picture before next weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Ashlyn, but I now realize how much naps help mommy and daddy appreciate the times when she's awake. Here are some pictures of Ashlyn doing anything but napping:
In other news, Ashlyn decided that Halloween should not be over and has been trick or treating around the house. She's even hitting the cats up for candy. Seeing no candy forthcoming from our feline companions, she opted to put shoes in her bag so she wouldn't finish empty handed.
While Ashlyn was enjoying her time at Cooks, Pe-Pa was off at Caddo lake celebrating his birthday. Ashlyn didn't get to say happy birthday, so she went off in search of Pe-Pa.
She didn't find him, but Happy Birthday all the same!
And here are some random pictures of Ashlyn's preferred hair style: crazy.
