Hi. Remember me? The mom who used to blog every day? What happened to me? Why so little blogging? Harumph. See that sad but very adorable and pissed off face up there? That’s the reason I can’t blog. It’s her fault.

Baby Bug officially turned 18 months. Eighteen months is when babies usually give up the morning nap and take one long one at 1 o’clock or so. At least that’s what my mom tells me and she knows what she’s talking about some of the time. Maybe some other version of that is realistic.

What Baby Bug has been doing is: not taking a morning nap until we drive somewhere in the car. I try and stay home and not do any errands anywhere but in the last few weeks we’ve had a million and one things to do involving all kinds of family and situations that are bigger than us. So here’s how it goes:

Baby Bug sleeps for ten minutes in the car (or an hour if I’m driving to the sticks) and decides that’s it for the rest of the day until we drive somewhere else. I try and try to put her down but it’s world war three every time. There’s only so much crying and carrying on I can put up with. Not to mention there is an office in our house where a troll works and he gets really really grumpy when there are babies crying all the time.

Finally, I get tired of waiting for her to take her afternoon nap so I haul her off to the grocery store or wherever other place I feel I need to go in order to keep the house running and Kabamo! she falls asleep in the car. It’s that blasted car seat. (or stroller)

It’s like magic. I buckle her in and la la la off she goes to the Land of Nod-your-head-off-your-neck-in-that-freakishly-toddler-rubberized-way. Except this never works if I put her in the car seat with the intention of putting her asleep. Not that I’ve really tried it… I’m already feeling guilty for all the breaking-her-will methods I’ve used on her.

By the times she decides she does need an afternoon nap after-all, it’s five o’clock and she says it’s time to take a big loooooooooooooong nap and sleep right through mommy carrying her up the stairs, right through mommy banging pots and pans around to make dinner, all the way until seven p.m.! Which would be an HOUR before her normal bedtime. Then she’s up for two hours (or more) and by the time she goes down for the night, the mommy (who used to be a blogger and freelance designer by night) is so frustrated and tired, she lays down with the wiggly baby to help her go to sleep and Kabamo! she falls asleep too!! We’re like two tired soldiers falling asleep in the mud, face down.

My normal trick to keep myself up at night blogging and working and making things is the “Just work for 15 minutes” rule. OMSH taught it to me a month ago or so. It really works. Every time I sit down to “just work for 15 minutes” I end up working for an hour or more. The time flies by and I’m fine. A little tired in the morning but nothing a little (or a lot of) caffeine can’t fix.

But lately my plans have been foiled and everything is suffering. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Maybe I’ll just set an alarm for midnight and hope I’ve managed not to interrupt a normal sleep cycle. Or maybe I’ll just tell my eleventy-seven (well, not really that many but enough) clients that I’m out. Sorry. Here’s your money back.

Baby Bug is actually taking a nap right now in her “big girl bed”. I was desperate so I’m trying anything. I folded our futon in half and set her up with her favorite Hello Kitty pillow, then I lay down with her (read: held her down with my strong mom arm) until she fell asleep. It was the only way I could get her to stay asleep. Maybe she just has an aversion to her crib or something. Whatever works.

I gotta run. She might wake up and I have so many things to do!!!