Naptime Drives

By the time Mackenzie was a little over three years old she had given up her nap. Not that she was a willing napper up until that time, but it got to the point where I gave up trying to coax her into a nap. As with my own children's sleeping experiences, I never made her cry herself to sleep. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't have the fortitude to listen to the painful, gut-wrenching screams or because I never knew a person that had to cry themselves to sleep. In addition, Daba's early practice of running the water and walking in circles also helped to establish the 'lulling to sleep' model. Since I knew Kenz needed a nap in those first couple of years, I did what every normal grandmother would do to ensure this happened---- I drove her around the neighborhood for about twenty minutes---everyday. Naptime drives usually drank most of my bi-monthly fill-up of gasoline. Although this was before the oil crunch, when gas prices rose over three dollars a gallon, the cost of napping still averaged about fifteen dollars a week , for me, a fair deal. ("Play Wit Me Nana", Chapter Three, "And Away We Go" )