By Rick Ryckeley
Fayette County Fire & Emergency Services

Have you ever taken the time to watch a two-year-old run around? They can play for hours and hours, never stopping, never getting tired. I don't understand why they're called toddlers they do everything but.

Last fall I saw three teenagers trying to keep up with one toddler at the local high school football game. They couldn't do it; after ten minutes, the three teenagers were worn out. The toddler was still going strong. The young mom rescued the three teenagers by scooping up the toddler in her arms while saying, "Tommy, it's nap time."

She walked past me, squirming toddler in tow and pushing a baby stroller with a newborn. I asked her how she did it. "How do you find all of the energy to keep up with a new baby and run around after the toddler?"

She let me in on a mom secret as she walked past me and said, "Nap time is not just for little kids anymore."

Nap time at our house for Twin Brother Mark and me was right after lunch. Mom would tell us to go to our room, lie down and take a nap. We always went to our room but seldom took our naps.

One afternoon Mark and I were in the bedroom seeing who could stand on his head the longest instead of taking a nap, when it happened. Mom was in the kitchen and yelled, "Y'all boys quit standing on your heads and take your nap!" Stunned, we fell over and looked at each other. The mom secret was out. Mom had super powers and could see through walls and around corners! But we were soon to learn that seeing through walls and around corners were not the only super powers my mom had.

The next day was Saturday and our weekly trek to grocery store. Once there, we all had our jobs to do. My job always was to push the shopping cart. Mom's job was to walk ahead of us picking out only food that was good and healthy to eat. She walked right past the sticky buns, Ho Ho's, and our favorite cereal, Sergeant Sweet with green marshmallow army men, and picked up the all natural cereal. The healthy cereal she picked out always tasted like cardboard. Thinking back, the healthy cereal looked like cardboard, too.

The Sister's job was to put the items into the cart. Big Brother James, Older Brother Richard and Twin Brother Mark's job was to follow behind me putting loads of sticky buns, Ho Ho's, and Sergeant Sweet with green marshmallows army men into the cart. When we got to the checkout line, Mom turned to us and said, "Now, you boys take all the sweet stuff you snuck into the cart and put it back on the shelves."

We said, "Yes, Mama," and as we went to put the groceries back, we knew that mom had just shown us another of her super powers. Our mom had eyes in the back of her head! When we got home, we helped unload the green wood panel station wagon and put away the groceries, while mom fixed us lunch.

If you wanted the best peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches in the entire neighborhood, all ya had to do was show up at our house 'round lunchtime. But, unless you wanted Mom to tell you to take a nap, you'd better leave right after. For the first six years of my life, she made us take a thirty minute nap right after lunch. She said, "Always take a short nap after lunch; it'll recharge your body's batteries." Mom didn't need batteries she had super powers.

Mom must've had super powers. She cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner for seven people everyday. She cleaned the house, did all the laundry, all the grocery shopping, ran us around to our after school activities, helped us with our homework, read us bed time stories and every night she ran the Under-the-Bed-Monster out of our rooms. If asked about her super powers, Mom would simply say, "I get all of my energy from my after-lunch nap. Why do you think it's called a power nap?"

I believe all the energy of adults is compacted into the little body of toddlers. That's why they have so much energy and seemingly run around and last forever. When we grow up, we have the same amount of energy; it's just spread out over bigger bodies so we don't last as long. So go ahead and take that short power nap right after lunch, and if your boss asks you why you're sleeping on the job, just answer him, "'Cause my mom told me to."

[Rick Ryckeley is employed by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services. He can be reached at saferick@bellsouth.net.]

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