I know, I know, I already blogged but this house is just a barrel full of laughs and I’m afraid if I try and wait till tomorrow, I’ll forget and then…bammo…the moment will be gone. So for today, two posts.

Leina will only take one nap a day. Why is this important? Because it is literally true. She will only fall asleep once each day. As I have learned, a five minute snooze in the car seat is the equivalent of a three hour crib nap. Take your pick. Same with a two second head nod in the stroller or a ten minute snuggle snooze on the sofa. Once she has closed her eyes, that’s it folks. See you tomorrow. What you are left with is a kid who has had way too much fun and not enough sleep. And so, I am very vigilant about where Leina sleeps.

I am the master of the Oh-Dear-Lord-We-Are-Five-Minutes-From-Home-Don’t-Let-Her-Doze-Off-Now technique. This involves reaching behind my seat while driving and pinching her toes, throwing food behind my head in the vain home that she’ll catch and eat it (or, at the very least, it will hit her in the face and keep her awake) and the hysterical singing of every children’s song I know. Kevin has witnessed my power and is in awe.

So today, we had a free morning and Kevin offered to take the Munchie to Costco to pick up supplies. I hemmed and hawed. A Costco trip is very dangerous. Munchie does fine on the way to Costco, she has a blast shopping at Costco, but getting her home awake takes every last iota of my Oh-Dear-Lord-We-Are-Five-Minutes-From-Home-Don’t-Let-Her-Doze-Off-Now power.

I almost didn’t let them go until Kevin said, “come on, how hard can it be to keep her awake?”

Ten minutes later I was waving them good-bye as Kevin drove off with my child, my checkbook, and the list.

Two hours later, I watched them return. Kevin had this panicked look on his face and he jumped out of the car so fast I figured his bladder must be about to burst. But instead of rushing into the house, he open the back car door and pulled Leina out of her car seat.

“Hurry, hurry,” he cried, “you have to help me! I think she’s about to fall asleep! We have to get her moving STAT!” (OK, he didn’t say stat but I wanted to convey to you the urgency in his voice.)

Sure enough, Leina loved the trip over, she loved shopping, and elicited cries of “how cute” and “what beautiful eyes” from complete strangers. Kevin later admitted that he was secretly thinking, “pashaw, that Chrissie, what an exaggerator. This is a piece of cake.”

And then they headed home. They had only gone five minutes out of the twenty minute car ride when Kevin saw her head start to bob. Somehow, he managed to keep her awake. I suspect he used the throw food behind the seat technique because Munchie was covered in pizza sauce. But even though he fought the good fight, she managed to nod off.

How do I know this? Because at 2pm today, when my child should have been cuddling her blanket and asking for “nappie” she was, instead, screaming “HOP! HOP! HOP!” and bouncing after the cat. When Wicks wisely decided to head out the cat door, Leina began screaming and running in circles around the kitchen island in a game of imaginary chase.

“Well, look at the time,” Kevin exclaimed as he slapped on his pager and grabbed his badge. “Gotta go to work. Good luck with that nap, hon,” he snickered as he headed out the door.

The bum.

But this tale has a happy ending. Calling forth my Oh-Dear-Lord-It’s-Past-2pm-And-Leina-Is-On-Fire power I managed to slowly amp her down and get her into bed. Probably not for long but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?