on nekidness, silence, and mortality

Toby has stopped taking naps. This is alarming for multiple reasons. 1) I need Toby to take a nap 2) I need Brynn to take a nap, and that is unlikely with Toby wailing, or playing the drums, or "going potty" 20 times. 3) Toby still kinda needs a nap, or else he turns into whichever half of Jekyll and Hyde is the bad guy.

Now, I have tried in recent weeks to force a nap, with beatings* and threats, and about 3 times a week, I manage to make him lie down long enough to actually fall asleep. That's great, until it's bedtime and he wreaks havoc until midnight, which not only bothers Brynn, who shares a room with him and likes her beauty sleep, but it also bothers me and makes me turn into a shrieking Wal-Mart mom.

So I am trying some other options. 1) I take him with me on nap-time errands, whilst the MOG stays home with the nappers. 2) I have him attempt "quiet time", which is mostly an epic FAIL.

Currently, he is locked in his room, allowed to play quietly and not nap as long as he is quiet. He managed that for a good 10 minutes before he gave the cymbals a good crashing run, slammed open the door and went potty, dropping the lid forcefully and slamming the door on the way back out. He then hung out in the stairwell by his door, talking loudly to himself. I went up there to reason with him about the parameters of quiet time, and he was in the buff.

Now I am in a quandary. Is this the hill I want to die on? Is nekkid quiet time good enough for me, or will I require clothing as a part of quiet time? Having given it some thought, I retreated back down here to the couch. Nekkid works. Whatever, just quiet.

One of the downsides of this is he will be emotionally unstable from 5 pm to 8. He will lie on the floor and wail because his sandwich is diagonal, and he will do things like take the purple crayon away from Bean and go lock himself in R2's room with it while she bangs on the door and screams.

But, the glorious reality is, he is mortal, and when I put him to bed at 8 with kisses and hugs and menacing threats, he will not argue, because he will be too tired. Glory.

*not beatings