The half past four meltdown!

Cheeky Monkey No.2 is now two and a half years old and she's suddenly hit the end of nap time.

Both my girls have been pretty good sleepers (compared to some stories I've heard from friends!), but it would appear that they have both decided nap times are not acceptable after two and a half. 

It's fine.  Or at least it will be, when she actually gets to the age where she doesn't need more than the 11 hours sleep she gets each night.  But at the moment she quite often hits 4.30pm and disintegrates!  It's like watching a otherwise healthy tulip suddenly run out of water in it's vase and collapse in a pile of petals within 5 minutes.  One minute; happy and cheerful; the next minute; a cross between a screaming 12 month old and a 14 year old stroppy teenager.

Again; it's fine.  But only when I prepare for it.  Planning to cook a lovely family meal at 5.30pm isn't generally a good idea at the moment.  Unless, of course, it's the one day each fortnight when it all becomes too much and she collapses into an exhaustion induced nap at 3pm, and you know that it's a choice between waking her up and dealing with Jeykll (or is it Hyde) for the next hour, or letting her sleep and accepting that bedtime will be around 3 hours later than usual.

So it's cooked meals at lunch, quick sandwiches for tea.  At 4pm of course.  You don't think I'd wait until the 4.30 meltdown do you?