Is this how the final nap disappears??

[Samuel's mum]

Apologies if this has been covered a zillion times before but I was looking for some experience on the dropping the final nap issue.

Previously Sam has been sleeping a good hour/ hour and a half at lunchtime and really seemed to need it but it has meant bedtimes getting later and later. Today Sam just wasn't tired. He lay down for 5 minutes and read a book and then played and chatted and just was not tired. Then he asked to come downstairs and I could see sleep really wasn't going to happen so he did. I kept expecting him to crash or get grumpy but no. Then this afternoon on the way back from the park I thought he probably be fighting sleep in the car but no he was happily singing to the CD!! What the heck? He's just happily gone to bed now (7.15pm) after a happy dinner and bath - no signs of suffering from over-tiredness!!!!
I'm a bit mystified. How does that final nap usually go?

[tylersmommy]

That might be how it goes. For us, Tyler hasn't napped consistently in 1 yr or so. Some days, he just doesn't, and that's the way it is. Sometimes, it affects him and he's cranky the rest of the day, others, you'd never know it. I still put him down for "quiet time" in his room every day at nap time. Sometimes he'll nap, sometimes he'll read books by himself for an hr or 2. I've found that he really needs some down time to relax (and so do I!) so that's where our nap time has gone. We've also figured out that he does need to go to bed a bit earlier on no-nap days, even if he isn't tired or cranky, or else he's a grump the next morning. That's just been our experience!