2022, animals, books, Family, Kids, Music, Uncategorized

Nap Time

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Our grandson is 4, and is at that stage where, if he takes an afternoon nap, he can’t go to sleep for the night until after 10:00, and if he doesn’t nap, he is a real pill until bedtime.

When Son and his family visited over Memorial Day weekend, we put on a vinyl recording of Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester narrated by Meryl Streep, with music by The Chieftains, for grandson to listen to one afternoon. Son listened to the same recording when he was a small boy, usually at bedtime. I was tickled to find Son and Grandson sound asleep on the sofa shortly after starting the recording. They didn’t even get to the part where the Tailor sets free the mice that Simpkin, the naughty cat, had imprisoned under the tea cups, before they dozed off. I have always liked Simpkin. Grandson was so tired after traveling to us that the nap didn’t interfere with his usual bedtime.

What helps you sleep? Who is your favorite Beatix Potter character? What do you remember about naps as a child?

34 thoughts on “Nap Time”

  1. I am currently in the surgery waiting room at the hospital in Waconia with my friend, and I am still exhausted after my 7 hour drive yesterday. The waiting room is freezing. I am bundled up in my jacket. I get really sleepy when I am cold, and I do hope I can stay awake.

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  2. That’s really sweet that they both fell asleep.

    What helps me fall asleep, at night anyway, is lying down.

    I loved some of Beatrix’s characters just because of their names – Tom Kitten, Hunca Munca, Tabitha Twitchet, and Jemima Puddle-Duck are among my favorites. (Note bene: This is not all memory – I was able to lay my hands on my Bx.P. collection…)

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      2. I liked it as well. I did NOT go see the Peter Rabbit movie that came out a couple of years back. Just from the trailers I’m thinking Ms. Potter was probably turning over in her grave.

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  4. I gave up napping early as did my son as did one grandson. My daughter and her daughter inherited my father’s gift for power naps starting young.
    Old age and chronic pain stole my gift for sleeping and napping.
    I remember reading Peter Rabbit in first grade and finding it inane and the language stilted but then reading others of her stories and realizing stories do not have to be realistic and that language can be used in many ways.

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    1. Meryl Streep did a lovely job narrating “The Tailor of Gloucester”. She also narrated “The Tale of Jeremy Fisher” and “Peter Rabbit”. Both of those are lovely as well.

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  5. I never read any Beatrix Potter books as a small child. I was into Dr. Suess, and learned to read by having my parents read “The Cat in the Hat” to me over and over. There is a series of Beatrix Potter cozy mysteries, in which the animals can talk to each other, not to humans, but they help BP solve the crime anyway. Cute and reasonably diverting, and they hint at the strong, talented, and interesting woman Beatrix Potter was in real life. I shall have to look into the movie mentioned above.

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    1. Rabbit Ears Productions did wonderful recordings of many children’s stories with well known actors/actresses and great musicians.

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  6. I remember naps in kindergarten and maybe 1st grade?? Do they still do that? Maybe it’s ‘quiet time’ now days.

    I know they keep saying not to use your phone at bedtime, but I have the nighttime settings on and watching videos or playing games on the phone make me tired.
    Yesterday I fell asleep on the couch in the middle of a video.

    I don’t recall much Beatrix Potter.

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  7. I don’t recall napping; neither my kids or any of my grandkids ever napped. I don’t have any difficulty falling asleep at night and could probably nap in the afternoon, were I willing to devote the time.

    We have copies of all the Beatrix Potter books and keep them mostly for the illustrations. They didn’t interest our daughters or grandchildren as much as all the other storybooks we had available.

    The Beatrix Potter movie was, in my opinion, diverting, as Miss Potter’s contemporaries might say. The story was good but spoiled by the choice of Renee Zellwigger in the lead role. With so many fine British actresses, why choose one who has to fake an accent? And personally I find her squinty-eyed, pursed lips mode of acting painful. The animated sequences bordered on twee. As I say, my opinion.

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  8. i was not a beatrix potter fan
    mom tried to read it to us but i thought it was a bit slow to develop
    naps in kindergarten were a thing where we laid in the dark for 20 minutes to give the teachers a break
    i was not a napper
    i’m ready to start now
    i can power nap on a half moments notice today
    ari my 4 year old grandson doesn’t nap
    he wakes up like a whirling dervish and goes til he drops at 10
    his brother denver is a mere mortal who naps like. normal kid up at 8 nap at 1130 another at 4 to bed at 9
    3rd kid in september will be lost in the shuffle

    fun stuff
    just got ari reading dr suess
    maybe i’ll offer beatrix potter

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  9. I had a bit of BP as a child, but I only know this because her stories are listed in an ancient book (that I keep meaning to bring to Bill) from my childhood. And sad to say I didn’t read any to YA when she was little – there are SO many excellent kids’ books, we just never got around to Peter Rabbit.

    Naps – meh. If I nod off for a few minutes while reading, does that count as a nap? I don’t tend to think so and if I do snooze for too long then I wake up kinda crabby.

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  10. Beatrix is more interesting when it is read aloud. I remember now that Meryl Streep also narrated “Two Bad Mice”. “What a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda!!” is a memorable line.

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  11. Considering that I was born in England only eight months after Beatrix Potter’s death, it’s odd that I’m only vaguely aware of her work. I’ve seen some of her more popular books, of course, but I’ve never owned or read any of them. Growing up in post-war Denmark may be partially to blame; I can’t imagine there was much money to squander on children’s books translated from another language. But now that I think about it, her books weren’t in the collections of the two families whose small children I took care of, either. Maybe it’s a timing thing?

    I was never a good napper, I’m still not. For some reason I need to lie down in order to sleep, just can’t do it sitting up. Even on very long flights, I’m unable to sleep. Unless I’m anxious about something, I usually don’t have trouble going to sleep. Of course, I’m in the fortunate position that I can stay up or go to bed when I feel like it, and that helps.

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  12. I did not realize BP had written anything beyond Peter Rabbit till I took “kiddie lit” in college.

    When I was in kindergarten, I remember lying on a little rug for our rest time. When I taught, the kids put their heads down on their tables (each seated six – no individual desks) after recess, and I would play lullaby-type music on the piano. Invariably someone would fall asleep.

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  14. OT – Wish I had thought to post this on our recent poetry day. Dedicating this not only to Ben, but to all the Baboons – metaphorical farmers, all.

    Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

    Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
    vacation with pay. Want more
    of everything ready-made. Be afraid
    to know your neighbors and to die.
    And you will have a window in your head.
    Not even your future will be a mystery
    any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
    and shut away in a little drawer.
    When they want you to buy something
    they will call you. When they want you
    to die for profit they will let you know.

    So, friends, every day do something
    that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
    Love the world. Work for nothing.
    Take all that you have and be poor.
    Love someone who does not deserve it.
    Denounce the government and embrace
    the flag. Hope to live in that free
    republic for which it stands.
    Give your approval to all you cannot
    understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
    has not encountered he has not destroyed.

    Ask the questions that have no answers.
    Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
    Say that your main crop is the forest
    that you did not plant,
    that you will not live to harvest.
    Say that the leaves are harvested
    when they have rotted into the mold.
    Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

    Put your faith in the two inches of humus
    that will build under the trees
    every thousand years.
    Listen to carrion – put your ear
    close, and hear the faint chattering
    of the songs that are to come.
    Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
    Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
    though you have considered all the facts.
    So long as women do not go cheap
    for power, please women more than men.
    Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
    a woman satisfied to bear a child?
    Will this disturb the sleep
    of a woman near to giving birth?

    Go with your love to the fields.
    Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
    in her lap. Swear allegiance
    to what is nighest your thoughts.
    As soon as the generals and the politicos
    can predict the motions of your mind,
    lose it. Leave it as a sign
    to mark the false trail, the way
    you didn’t go. Be like the fox
    who makes more tracks than necessary,
    some in the wrong direction.
    Practice resurrection.

    ~Wendell Berry

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        1. I had trouble with that line too. Knowing Wendell Berry (not personally) though, I’d say he’s not rooting for a militia from Idaho or anywhere else.

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  16. WP has been so difficult to me today. Love the header photo. Favorite Beatrix Potter character is Farmer McGregor. (I started the day by chasing a deer who was munching on my raspberries. Given my state of recovery, it was the slowest chase ever). We read BP as kids. I remember kindergarten naps on the hard floor, laying on a thin rug. It was all day kindergarten, so we all 44 of us (yes, 44 kindergartners!) usually sacked out.

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  17. Melatonin is great! For me it includes awesome dreams. I’m sure everyone dreams differently but taking a Melatonin tab relaxes me in 15 minutes but there is an anticipation of dreaming. My dreams were remembered. Invariably nice stuff. Often could be the germ ideas for screenplays. I continued to have a notebook at hand to record them. Truth be told, in knowing this, I have reduced my usage to once a week. A daily/nightly dosage almost seemed addictive.

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