No-nap, quiet time, pennies, oh, my!

It's a sad, sad, sad day.  I have to just admit to myself that naps are a thing of the past.  2/3 of my children are awake from 7am to 8pm and I feel like this truly is the end of an era. A good era.  A peaceful era.  If you know me at all you know that the clock runs our house and honestly it wasn't until about 8 months ago that anyone actually saw 2:30pm on the clock.  Sleep had always taken over by then but not anymore and I'm devastated.  I still require quiet time which means they have to be quiet doing something, either together or alone, for a certain period of time every afternoon after lunch.  I will give them a time and until the clock says that they know I am not to see or hear them.  This is good for all involved, trust me.  As I type this I hear pitter pattering upstairs as they run from each other's rooms.  As long as they don't bother the sleeping baby OR me then it's fine.  I've come to terms with the no-nap thing.  But I don't like it one bit.

The big challenge now is in the morning.  William tends to be somewhat of an earlier riser than the rest of the family but at the tender age of 3 he doesn't quite understand why if HE is up why everyone else isn't either.  I love when he comes to my bedside at 6:20am and just starts having a conversation with me.  Ummm, Buddy, I'm sleeeeeping.  This morning I woke up to this cute little blonde boy in my face saying, "You know, mommy, when I'm 100 years old I'm not going to sleep in a bed anymore.  I'm just going to sleep on the stairs.  Do you think that's a good idea?"  

We're on round two of  my penny reward system and it seems to be working.  Well, needless to say William didn't earn any this morning, but for the most part it's working.  If the kids stay in their rooms until their clock says SEVEN ZERO ZERO in the morning then they get 2 pennies.  When they get 20 pennies they get to buy whatever they want.  William earned his before Drew *shocker* and after wandering Target for a little bit this is what he bought:

He had his 20 pennies in a baggie and he paid for the train by himself.  He handed the bag of pennies to the lady while I discreetly swiped my card stood by and watched.

Today Drew earned her 20th penny so after quiet time we're off to the mall.  She wants to browse the Disney Store.  I love that they earn their own and pay for their own.  I hope I'm not screwing them up by allowing them to think that everything everywhere costs... 20 pennies.

And since we're talking about sleep, I just have to brag that Lauren, just a week from turning 11 months old, sleeps 13 hours a night.  Straight. 

The end!