The Naughty Napper

Sometimes as a mother, I feel like there is this unwritten rule stating; Thou Shall Not Have Two Good Days in a Row! Seriously, right when I think I've gotten over one hurdle another pops up and glares me down.  A few days ago we had a spectacular day.  My kids got along and actually entertained each other.  I was able to get a lot accomplished and not feel like I was just ignoring my children.  We played together, everyone used the potty correctly ALL DAY, no one spilled a whole bag of cereal, and no major tantrums were thrown.  I could go on, but let's just agree that it was a smooth, happy day at our home.  I felt like I could handle my life, I felt good.

Then, that sneaky rule attacked.  The next day I woke up to sunshine and went for a run before my husband left us for the whole day.  For the most part things went normal until nap time.  My two year old daughter is just like me and LOVES to sleep.  Usually she asks us to go to bed and we rarely hear from her once she's down.  She still takes a 3 hour nap everyday like clockwork, that is until this eventful day.  I put her down like normal but she did not go to sleep.  She cried, screamed and used every trick in the book to get out of bed and once I put her back in her bed she cried and screamed again.  I tried everything I could think of since this was so abnormal and finally just listened to her cry.  I could tell she was tired and I had major things that needed to get done during this precious nap time.  I needed my sweetheart to be just that on this day.

After fighting her for an hour and a half I was more than frustrated.  I decided to try another tactic.  I moved her onto my bed, which she loves, and laid down with her.  After about 5 min she was out and I thought I was finally free.  After eating a quick lunch and I looked in on her to find this. . .

 

I guess she couldn't sleep because of her dry itchy skin and was in desperate need of some lotion.

 

This picture doesn't even show the mess on the floor, the dresser or little mirror.

 

And this face doesn't even begin to show how I was feeling.  It was my breaking point and I thought I was DONE.  She noticed I wasn't too happy and gave me a "I sorry, Mommy" in her cute little voice and then it hit me, she's TWO and every two year old has moments.  I stepped back and took a deep breath and then went for my camera.  While snapping a few pictures I even smiled a little and another thought struck me "It's a nap."  Why was I letting a nap make me so upset?  Should I really let something so little completely ruin my day?  Missing one nap is not going to affect her mental or physical well being.  For heavens sake it's not even going to matter tomorrow.  When it comes to motherhood I've realized I stress about the little things too much and when things don't go as planned I sometimes let it ruin my day, which in turn affects the rest of my family.  Do I really want my kids to react to little frustrations in life by pouting and acting grumpy the rest of the day?  No, and to make it clear that's a big NO.

I'm a big believer in the saying "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."  Sure, she missed her nap and was grumpy the rest of the day but that just meant I needed to stay calm and up my game.  I packed a few extra snacks and toys for when we ran errands that afternoon and put her to bed early.  No eternal harm done. 

Nothing like a two year old to teach you a little perspective!