Nap time. Why does it have to be such a struggle? Maya, who is 2, goes in phases of settling down really easily for a nap and other times throwing a full-blown tantrum.

Today, it’s tantrum time. She screamed when I walked out. Then, she rolled over, stood up and started wailing again. I waited five minutes and upon my return I saw her with one leg hoisted on top of the crib as if she was a ballerina stretching her legs.

“No,” I said, shaking my head at her and she quickly pulled it down. “It’s naptime.”
She jumped up and down on her mattress and started slapping her hands on her stomach and chest, sort of like a defiant monkey, before pointing to the door. “Out, out,” she begged.

I shut the door to more screams. I have to stand firm. She’s too young to give up naps. She was trying to make a break for it, though. This is the first time I’ve seen her try to climb out of the crib.

Ah ha! It’s the perfect scenario for me to transition her to a big girl bed, which in her case is a really, really big bed because she’ll be moving to a queen-sized bed. Her room doubles as the guest room and I can’t give up that bed, even if she will look like a baby doll in it.

I’ve wanted to move her to her real bed for some time now. I even planned to buy her new bedding for her birthday but I waited too long to buy it and when I finally went to make the purchase, it wasn’t on sale. Now I won’t buy it out of principle. I’ll just have to wait for the next sale.

Anyway, if we get rid of the crib then we can make some space in her room for her toys, like the giant dollhouse that has been sitting in the “toy free” zone in our living room since her birthday weeks ago. We can buy her a table and chairs and maybe a bookshelf so she doesn’t have to raid her brother’s every time she wants to read. Plus, I told a pregnant friend that if Maya is out of her crib by the time my friend’s baby is born, she can borrow our crib.

But, wait! I’ve heard the warning enough to know that many kids give up their naps when they switch to a real bed. What if Maya is one of those kids? My 4-year-old son, Guillermo, was a little older than 2 when we moved him out of his crib and he kept up his nap. Of course, he was napping five days a week at daycare so the bed change didn’t affect him much during the day.

So, maybe I should keep her in her crib for a while. She’s pretty short. I don’t think she can get over the railing no matter how hard she tries. And, I just checked on her. It took ten minutes of a monster-sized tantrum, but she’s out cold, snoring away. Do I really want to disturb that?

Natalie appears every Sunday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Natalie at her blog, A Day at the Park.