The Boy Who Wouldn’t Nap

Our family took a trip to Kuantan during the Merdeka holiday weekend. We wanted our 1-year old son to take his morning nap first so we set off to fetch my sister-in-law and mother-in-law at their house in Kepong at 11:00am. Lunch at noon, cleaned up, toilet break for 3-year old boy, packed up the car and we took off at 1:20pm.

Almost exactly on cue, our younger son, Adik, fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving the house.

Ok – one down, one to go.

Our MPV bravely chugged up the Karak highway with a full load – 2 grandmothers (my auntie and my mother-in-law), 2 parents, 1 auntie, a pre-schooler, a toddler and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, and luggage.

Half an hour passes and no sign of a “touchdown”. That’s our code word for Abang finally falling asleep.

One hour whizzes by and the plane steadfastly refuses to drop altitude. Forget radioing in to the control tower, this little guy was still cruising at 35,000 feet.

After one and a half hours on the road we started to consider just giving up. At least he wasn’t being annoying and whiny, but it seemed like such a “waste” of 3 hours on the road.

As if reading our minds, Adik woke up. So a quick stop to stretch our legs and break the monotony of the journey, then off we were again. Before you know it, we were in Kuantan town. Both boys were relatively cheery, snacking all the way (the way we packed food for the trip, you’d think Kuantan has no food or water!).

We followed signs to Teluk Cempedak, and Abang was happily pointing things out as he usually does in the car. Then we came to the sign that said “Teluk Cempedak 5km”. Just then, I spotted an RHB bank. For lack of anything else to show him, I exclaimed “Hey, Abang, look! An RHB Bank!”

Suddenly 3 pairs of ice-cold eyes whipped around and bore down at me with expressions that could have made holes through my head and out into the headrest. Those eyes also said, “Aiya!! Almost touchdown la!!”

5 kilometres. I say again, 5 KILOMETRES! We travelled over 250km and he chose the LAST 5 KILOMETRES to fall asleep. Sigh.

Now, most parents know that a nap suddenly cut short is worse than no nap at all. Such was our case. Still, a swim in the pool was all it took to brighten up little grumpy feet.

It was pretty much the same story on the journey back to KL, but at least this time Abang did us the courtesy of having a half hour (as opposed to a 5 minute) nap.

C'est la vie!