Andrew is an unbelievably good sleeper.

He wasn’t always, but he is now. At least 10 hours at night and 2-3 (often more) hours every afternoon - like clockwork. It’s a beautiful thing and I do everything possible not to mess with it.

But there was a day last week when it all got messed up. As usual, I had a plan. He would wake up at 6:30 (he always does, you know), we would play hard all morning, down for a nap at 12:30 and up in time to go for a walk with my friend at 4:00. Perfect. Foolproof.

Except he slept until 8:30.

I watched him carefully all morning for signs of tiredness, but he was going strong. 12:30, 1:00, 1:30. I knew he needed to go to sleep soon if I wanted to avoid having to wake him up to go for the walk. (Aside: The concept of ‘waking the dragon’ may have been created specifically to describe what happens when one tries to wake Andrew up. It’s frightening.)

At 2:00 the unthinkable occurred to me - maybe he should just skip his nap and rest in the stroller while Arlene and I walked.

I was feeling brave, so I broached the topic.

“Andrew, what do you think about skipping your nap today?”

He looked up at me, surprised, “No nap? But why?”

I started the explain the intricacies of our schedule and reminded him how grumpy he is when I have to wake him up and then I realized that I was over thinking (and over-explaining) the situation.

“We’re just not going to take a nap today, buggy. I’m sure you’ll be okay.” (read: I’m sure I’ll be okay.)

He went back to his sandbox, wide-eyed at the impossible turn the day had taken.

And, much to my chagrin surprise, it turned out just fine. He asked to go to bed at 3:00 and we compromised by watching two episodes of Curious George and snuggling.

As I sit here today, two hours in to his nap, a part of me still shudders to think that the day will come when he will not need a nap. When my introvert will have to look elsewhere for time to recharge. The thought of being on and engaged all day still terrifies me a little bit. But then I remind myself that those days are a ways off, and that he will be in school for some of the time, and that, as he gets older, he will become more and more independent. And I think of all the options we could have if we didn’t have to be home every afternoon, all the fun things we could do, all the places we could go.

I think that I caught a glimpse of the future, and I think that I’ll be okay.