Victory is mine.

If theres anything I have learned in my days with Ella... it's that repetition with children seems to make things easier.  Sometimes, I may have to be tough... but as long as she knows the drill, we're good.
She's always struggled with nap time.  I think we've only let her not have a nap maybe twice... but structure in our house is getting stronger.  Since we're into fifth month of having her every weekend, she's starting to understand the drill.  She knows she stays the night on Saturday nights.  She knows she goes to dance class with Nana on Saturday afternoons.  She knows after dance, it's straight to bed.  For quite some time, this caused her to be extremely upset.   She just had so much fun at dance and at lunch with her Nana, now she has to sit still and take a nap!?  WHAT?!
I think something has clicked with her, she realizes that we don't back down... so she might as well just go along with it.  Which is amazing.  Finally.  I wonder if other parents have reached this point and felt this way.  She's been acting this way for a little while now, but I haven't let it sink in, just because when dealing with a 3 year old girl, she could change at the drop of a hat.
The victory was felt when she was in the basement with her Dad... I yelled down there for her and she came to the bottom of the stairs.  I said "Please come upstairs now."  She stood still and said "why?!"  I simply told her it was just time to come up.  And she replied "oh, is it nap time?"  Typically, with the simple reply of "yes" would have sent her into a panic... and in that second it took that word "yes" to fall out of my mouth, I envisioned her screaming and kicking on the basement stairs and me having to grab her and drag her upstairs while she attempted to hold onto the banister with all her strength.  That's not what happened.  Not at all.  She started her way up and said "oook.  but do we get to do crafts when I wake up?"
Victory.
I, of course, responded with my usual response of "yes, but only have you have a good nap!"
All of this followed by her laying down and trying to keep her eyes closed.  Keeping your eyes closed seems to be such a struggle for a 3 year old, haha, but she holds them closed tight until she finally falls asleep.
I don't know what its like for full time parents...  but I'm sure that structure is something Ella will struggle with until she's all grown up.  We just try our hardest to keep it simple in the Moore household!