Much Needed Quiet Time

We have been battling naps/quiet time with Tate for over a year. Maren, of course, naps routinely every afternoon between 12:30-1:00 for an hour and a half or so. Tate did the same thing at her age. The bonus for me was that, with Tate, I had an hour and a half or so to myself to get whatever I needed to get done done without much interruption. At about 3, naps for him became few and far between. Now, my "quiet time" gets interrupted one million times with..mommy, mommy, mommy...for a little one who refuses to either stay in his room or even just upstairs. I've tried setting an alarm and telling him he can't come out until it goes off, let him watch movies, letting him have free reign of the upstairs, he only wants to do whatever I'm doing. Now, I'm quite flattered but I get nothing done! On the rare occasion he is so tired that he actually takes a nap, I literally, do a dance in the hall after sneaking out of his room once he's asleep. Today though he, unbelievably, stayed in his room, quietly playing for over an hour. I got soo much done in such a short amount of time..made calls, got dinner started, packed for NYC!!...it was much needed quiet time for us both. After an hour or so, I went upstairs to find him playing with his cars on the floors. After a "Hi, Mommy! Am I done?", I was ready for his company.

Here is the wild one today..Whew..NYC here I come!