Unscheduled Sleep Positions VIII

This is a blast from the past for me, as Godzilla who is now 5 was just 3(?) here. It's nice to go back through my archives and know that I have taken pictures of our second child, even if the third is currently getting the shaft. 

This kid has always been the one to sleep when, where, and how he wanted. Obviously, our train conductor hit his hours limit and needed take a break for a while, but the hands behind the head, legs up tell me he really had worn himself out and this was not just a pass out where I fall, rather he made a conscious decision to pass out here, in this spot.

When he was just about a year old, we moved from Illinois to our current house. At that point, Godzilla still needed his daily nap, and I was happy to take him into the nursery, sit in the rocker with him and start our nap time ritual. We would read a book and then as he cuddled into my chest, I would sing to him.

This was a practice Kate and I started with our daughter, and she loved the songs. She would beg us to read her "just one more book" and even at age 9 will ask me at bed time to sing to her. Godzilla though, once he figured out how to "shush" me, took full advantage of that finger to the lips. He wanted to fall asleep on his own terms, and they did not include me singing to him.

By the time we had converted his crib into a toddler bed, he would not only shush me, but then climb down off my lap as if to say "you just don't get it dad, I'll go to sleep, but only if you leave me alone!"

What a difference from his sister. She was a 2-3 hour process to get to sleep. She was needy. She needed Kate or I to sit with her, to hold her, to sing and read to her. She was high maintenance, and dealing with Godzilla was just so vastly different! He knows when he wants to sleep. He knows how he's going to sleep. And he knows he'll get there all on his own.

Naps don't happen for him as often now - especially unscheduled ones. But every now and then,

if I've run him hard enough,

I might still find him deciding he's had enough.

Let no one say my kids aren't strong willed.