It's that golden period in the middle of the day for us stay at home moms. The period of silence, where all you hear is the sound of your fingers on a keyboard. The part of your day where you can actually get some cleaning done without little hands helping you. That sacred part of the day where you can take a deep breath, do a bit of yoga, and re-center yourself. This part of the day I refer to as nap time.
I know I have been extremely lucky that my 3 1/2 year old has taken naps up until this point. Everybody has been saying since age 2 that he is going to stop any day now. Well, I think that day may be coming very soon. And not for just one of my children, but for both. Yesterday, neither of them took a nap. I grimaced when they both refused to go lay down in their rooms. And I thought I was so smart by saying you have to sit on the couch and watch a movie. I was hoping to outsmart them and have them fall asleep (this has been the case in the past). But alas, they thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas movie I put on that starred their favorite Mickey Mouse characters.
When they did not sleep, I already had the rest of the day mapped out in my head. Fighting, crying, not listening, melt downs, etc. Every worst case scenario was playing right in front of my eyes, yet they hadn't even moved from the couches yet. Then I took a breath, and thought to myself - why am I setting our day up for failure? Why am I trying to think of this as a bad thing? So I cannot read my own book today and relax. But you know what? I was able to have some extra unplanned time with my beautiful boys, and if it ended up with there being a melt down, I would know why. And I could cuddle them and help them get themselves together. What was wrong with that? To also add to it, they were the best children ever all morning, so how dare I think they were going to turn into these horrible, unrecognizable creatures?!
I got out yet another bag of cranberries, 2 scales, some sweet potatoes, an ice cube tray, tweezers, and plastic eggs. I put everything on the coffee/chalk table, and told them to go at it. I put my phone away, and I was able to really see how they could think. I was able to see them learning, creating, and just being themselves. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe that beautiful nap time was not the golden hour. Maybe this was the golden hour. Nowhere to be, no class or play date to be at, no distractions. No time constraints. It was just my boys and I. I was wrong. Watching them learn and explore; hearing them talk about the pilgrims finding cranberries, that is the golden hour. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Pierce figure out that if you put 3 big cranberries on one side of the scale, and 3 small cranberries on the other side of the scale will still make the big side sink, since they are heavier. He thought that was the coolest thing ever. Even though they were the same amount (3), they were not equal. This was the golden hour.
I know it is not going to be a bed of roses everyday. And I am still going to offer them the time to nap if they want it. No matter what we do, they are horrible sleepers at night. Carter sleep walks, and Pierce sleep walks and talks. But, I am no longer going to force them to nap. They know their bodies. They know when they need the extra sleep and when they no longer need it. I need to trust my kiddos more. They know a lot more than I give them credit for. Today, Carter came up to me and asked for a nap. And Pierce decided he needed one too. They also had a hard time following directions this morning and focusing; they knew they were tired.
Now I am here writing this while I wait for my boys to wake up. And yes, I guess I can still say it is nice to have a break and to have that quiet. But it is no longer my golden hour of the day. This is just my down time. My golden hour will come at some point today, when we can sit down together and work on something as a team. That is the golden hour. That is what matters the most.
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