Napping dilemma

I had lunch with a friend last week and we discussed how different Gumdrop's babyhood is from her siblings.  She knows different "stuff" than they did.  We were at Chick fil a and she was trying to "tag" the other kids.  Would my other kids have known about playing tag at 2?  No.  Would they have watched Phineas and Ferb?  No.  Would they have eaten Lucky Charms?  No.  Would they have had a drink of my tea?  No.  Did they get put down for a nap every day?  Yes. Does she? No.

Her life is different.  It's not better or worse, but different.  We were homebound much more when the older two were little.  There were lots of days of boredom. Two is much different this time around.

Gumdrop is a girl on the go.  Oh sure, I did music classes and swim lessons with the other two when they were little.  But that was it.  We did the lesson and we went home.  Gumdrop goes to school two mornings a week, go to swim lessons, has lunch, maybe takes a nap, then we go to pick up bubba and sissy.  We do homework and go to dance, swimming, gymnastics, piano....whatever we have that day.  She goes to bible study with me on Wednesdays and we don't get home until 1:45.  We have to leave to get the kids at 2:30.  Does she nap?  Not usually. I'm usually trying to get food in the crock pot because we have gymnastics and won't be home until late.  Life is so much busier and we can't always stay on schedule.  She's pretty adaptable, but often crabby.  Yesterday I needed to run a few errands after swim.  I fed her lunch and we ran to the mall. I looked at my watch and couldn't believe it was 1:30.  I had a load of dry cleaning I really needed to drop off. Of course, she fell asleep on the way.

So, what do I do?  Go home and take her out and put her in bed and then have to put her back in the car in 45 minutes (I have to leave ridiculously early to get a spot in line)? No.  You don't mess with a sleeping baby. So, I went to the park and read my book for 30 minutes and then drove to the carpool line where I sat for another 30 minutes.

Today is Wednesday and no nap day.  She fell asleep at 4:30 on the way to gymnastics.  I called her daddy and told him to pick up the kids on the way home.  So now she is peacefully sleeping in her big sis' bed. She probably won't go to sleep until 9 tonight.  So, like I say this napping thing with the third child is a dilemma.  I'm hoping that she's easy going and relaxed when she grows up.  Hopefully learning how to adapt now will benefit her later!