sleep woes

It appears that my now three year old is giving up his naps. Today is the second day in a row, and he has been fighting off some kind of bug as well. I don't quite know why he's not sleeping, but I am feeling very protective of my afternoon break at the moment!

I really shouldn't complain because my almost five year old still naps a couple times a week, and I know that is unusual. When he's not napping he's pretty good at staying in his "quiet time" room for an hour or more. Most days anyway.

However Caleb does not enjoy alone time the way Ian does. He wants to be with people all the time. So if he gives up his nice long nap... I suspect my break may be seriously threatened. Ugh. Good thing he's so precious and fun to be around. Some days it is really apparent why little children are so cute. They need to be. Or we wouldn't put up with nearly as much from them. :-)

Both boys have also been getting up at 6 a.m. if not earlier. Moms (or anyone else reading this) I am open to suggestions here! We had a family "chat" last night and came up with the idea of putting a clock in there and letting Ian be the "gatekeeper" by watching for 7 a.m. to come around before anyone is allowed out of their bed. I haven't been out to buy the clock yet, but hopefully this evening I'll be able to so we'll see if it works. I am really concerned about the upcoming time change. For most people the time changes work the opposite way. You get an extra hour of sleep in the fall, and have to get up an hour earlier than usual in the spring. For most moms I suspect it is the opposite (it is for me) because your child's internal clock doesn't shift. So if they normally get up at 6 a.m., now all the sudden it's only 5 a.m. on the clock when that little face shows up next to my sleeping head. My boys have the most adorable faces on the planet in my opinion. But even I do not want to see those little faces next to a clock showing 5 a.m. Please help if you know how! We have always allowed our kids to come in our bed for snuggling first thing in the morning. For the most part we have good sleepers and this has always been a welcome way to start the day. I am not ready to give that up, even though our queen size bed seems to be shrinking these days. I realize at some point this will have to stop. I can't let a 16 year old climb in there with us (and surely he won't want to then), but when? And how? What is the transition? Did I mention I am not ready to give this up?

In all of my fretting and whining I have to relay this conversation I am overhearing up the stairs:

"Caleb, would you like to join my quiet time little bubby?"
(gasps) "Oh sure! Thanks for asking me!" (hard to convey his disbelieving enthusiasm here)
"Okay, here you go, come on in"

They have been playing very sweetly since that point. Preschool helps these two to get along tremendously. Ian is much more into having his little brother around after he's been able to play with kids his own age for a few hours.

I must go and clean floors now, so we can get out and enjoy this beautiful day afterward. I will look forward to putting these two napless guys to bed early tonight!