Sleeping Beauty

Ava has pretty much outgrown her afternoon nap. Which means, she's pretty much outgrown naps altogether. But, every afternoon she still has "quiet time." She doesn't have to nap, but she plays quietly in her room, reads, colors, whatever she would like for an hour. She needs that time, I need that time. It works out well. Occasionally, she'll surprise me though and fall asleep (usually surrounded by about 20 books in her bed). This is rare, and usually only happens on days when she wakes up before 8 (she normally sleeps from 8:30-8:30 or 9... except Thursdays when I have to wake her up for her 9am ballet class). A few days ago she was up bright and early at 7:30 and by about noon I knew she was tired. Yet, despite her obvious exhaustion, she insisted she was just going to have quiet time and didn't need a nap. So, I just went through our normal afternoon routine - read a few books, sang a few songs, tucked her in and gave her kisses. She did what she normally does as soon as I leave the room, she jumps out of bed and begins rummaging through her massive book collection. I, on the other hand, was extremely tired that day and went to take a nap of my own. When I woke up about 45 minutes later I went in to check on Ava (who was being awfully quite). She wasn't in her bed, I didn't see her playing in the middle of her room, I panicked. But then, I looked on her stuffed animal-covered floor and this is what I saw:


She was so tired she couldn't even make it back to her bed. Right in the middle of emptying her stuffed animal basket she just conked out. At least she had a soft mattress of stuffed animals to lay on.