To Nap or Not To Nap

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Our saga continues (really I just regurgitate text from all the famous media of our time, i'm sure some ipr is being broken..) as we are approaching my daughter's 3rd birthday and she still cannot go to sleep peacefully.
Well that is not true. I spent the last 3 months on hiatus as I traveled around for work. It was exhausting and I missed my family but it seems I was not so missed, Naomi went to bed smoothly most nights, had no separation issues at school, and behaved in such a way that would make any mommy proud.
Then I came home. Last night was one of those nights that I question whether 2.5 year olds really need naps. The bedtime ritual that we always follow went fine as always but then it took 2 hours for her to finally go to sleep. After scores of coddling, threatening, something in between, until exhaustion set in.
See my earlier post about sleeping.

She naps at school, most of the time, and for those wondering, it's usually around 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
Those days are the hardest. The days she doesn't have a nap, you could write a book and take a video on how well she goes to bed. I was even going to blog on it upon my return home on what a great job my husband did while I was away.

So I ponder the question still, to nap or not to nap. I believe all the books that she needs to. And all the books indicate clearly that she needs to get up a bit earlier (she wakes up around 7.30am) so that she is getting x number of hours at night plus the nap in the day.
My husband thinks it is all rubbish and she is just done with naps. :-) He thinks the school is giving them turkey for lunch to help them sleep. lol

So I came to a conclusion last night, when I went in her room for the 45th time and was getting frustrated and asked her in a harsh tone- what is the crying about? She looked at me with those big blue eyes full of tears, I saw myself as a kid when my mom was a bit too harsh at times and melted. Then she tooted.
I couldn't help but laugh and so did she but I realized then that I have to stop reading sometimes. Trying too hard to understand it all, much like zen practice is too frustrating. It will never be 'by the book'.
My child is my child- and I need to experience her as she is and learn along the way the best way to manage her.
Say- isn't that how they used to do it before "what to expect.." books came along? :-)

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