My granddaughter Hanah is 16 months old now, and at daycare she has been promoted out of the baby room.  She is in with the toddlers now. The toddlers get to sleep in cots on the floor (about one inch off the floor, but still, cots), and, an even bigger privilege, in the toddler room they do not take a morning nap.

So, overnight, Hanah has stopped taking a morning nap at daycare.

But physically she is still “in between”. Sometimes she needs a morning nap, and sometimes she doesn’t.

When Hanah and her mom were with us last Saturday, Hanah fought loudly and clearly the morning nap we tried to impose. She was tired, her eyelids had drifted shut, and she had even started to snore… But the minute we had the heinous audacity to place her in her crib, her big blue eyes popped open. Indignantly, she began to talk, sit up, and then stand up… and after waiting patiently for several minutes to be liberated she let her displeasure be known.

“No more nap for me!” Her blue eyes fairly snapped at us in righteous indignation.

But today is Tuesday, when my husband and I watch Hanah at her house, and, the thing is, after spending yesterday at daycare, Hanah is pooped.  

So, at 10:00 a.m. today, I put Hanah in her sleep sack, read her a story, started singing to her, and she was out cold in one and a half verses.

 She’s still asleep, an hour and a half later.

 Hannah is growing through this “in between” phase. Soon she won’t need a morning nap at all.

But today, she did.

I’ve been thinking, this morning, that “in between” is a very common phase for a human being.  We’re always “in between” something or other:  career changes, possible relocations, or just small things like my 65-year-old knees transitioning from never speaking to me at all to plainly letting me know that 65 is not 35.  I am “in between” having the knees of my youth and the knees that will probably someday wear out completely and need to be replaced.

Hanah and I have great philosophical discussions on Tuesday afternoons when I take her out in her stroller.  I talk about anything and everything and Hanah replies in a very good-humored way, with “ba ba” and her own form of tuneless singing.

I think that when I take Hanah out for her stroller ride today I will tell her that both her methods of dealing with her “in between-ness” are useful and will serve her well in years to come.

Because sometimes we human beings need to grit our teeth and shout and jump boldly into the new, whatever it is.  I know I myself often cling to old, outworn things, be it clothes, routines, or character defects… they are comfortable, even when they no longer really fit.  There are times when, even though I’m still insecure with the change, I need to tell myself, “Off with the old, and on with the new!  This is it; it’s time to make this change, starting today!”

But there are other times, for us human beings, when we’re frankly not quite ready for some change.  We may THINK we’re ready… but, honestly, we’re not there yet. It’s at times like these that the old, tried and true tools of acceptance and “one day at a time” are invaluable. 

And an extra nap doesn’t hurt either.  

NOTE: Hanah slept for two hours this morning, and almost two hours this afternoon, after which we had a lovely long stroll in the dappled shade of her tree-filled neighborhood.