I call this "exhaustion defeats determination."

Daniel has been fighting naps for weeks now. I try not to engage in the battle, but insist that he must at least have quiet time in his room from about 1:30 to 3ish. And I remind him that no nap means he'll have to go to bed at 7 while Edward stays up later. Usually by about 2:15 he's calling me to rub his back until he falls asleep. Yesterday, he never napped and almost crawled to bed at 7--didn't even ask for me to read to him after John got done with his book.

Today he told me, "It's OK, I'll go to bed at 7," so I left him to play by himself. I heard him take a trip to the bathroom and then noticed it was much quieter, so I went up to peek. He was sitting in this chair, head nodding, but said, "Mom, what are you doing?" I told him I was getting my book and asked if he wanted me to rub his back. "No, I'm just waiting in my room until quiet time is over." Two minutes later I went back and snapped this picture. Hope he won't be too stiff when he wakes up!

Side note: even approaching four months after his 5th birthday, Edward still reliably naps five or six days a week. Usually once over the weekend and sometimes once during the week, he'll forgo sleep and just read or play with his Lego in his room. But he never fights about it or refuses to go. I realize this is unusual, and may be an issue come late August. He's even given me sort of a "raised eyebrow" look when I tell him that his kindergarten school day will go until 3 p.m. But they do have a rest time. We'll just see what happens through the summer and hope for the best.

In other exciting news that I forgot to share yesterday, the spring temperatures have also prompted a transportation change for us. I've thought for a long time that we should be taking the city bus to daycare/work since it does not add time to the commute (route is exactly the same as our driving route) and would cut our parking and gas expenses significantly. (Well, parking more than gas since it's only 2.5 miles, but with prices climbing toward $4/gallon, even 5 miles a day is not insignificant!)

So when the weather turned, I bit the bullet and signed up for a monthly bus pass, which the university subsidizes as an inducement to keep people out of the parking lots. For $10/month we can have unlimited rides on all city routes. I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog through the years that the boys LOVE this turn of events. They positively dash out the door in the morning with barely a "Bye, Dad" over the shoulder as they race around the corner to the bus stop (three blocks away.) We have instituted a "stop at least one sidewalk square away from the corner" policy so that I have time to catch up.

We have had to negotiate days of the week for each boy to be in charge of pulling the cord to signal the driver to stop, but we've pretty much worked that out. Edward also has to be reminded to stay in his seat. The morning route is quite crowded as we get closer to downtown so he's seen other riders standing. On our way home (much less crowded at mid-day) he thinks he's quite the daredevil attempting to ride standing up.

So I'd say it's working well. You won't see us standing out in the rain waiting for a bus, but when the timing and the weather are in sync, we'll be there, doing our part for the environment and the family budget.