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 [email protected].]