Naps

I remember when I was a little kid that my mother could fall asleep at the drop of a hat for like 10 minutes and talk about what a great nap she had had.  I remember thinking- "WHY does she have to nap?!"  or "Jeez, there she goes again!" or when I was a teenager and a little keener on the whole nap thing, "That was a nap?!" She likes to tell a story about how one evening she had put my sister and I in the bath together and she remembers waking up because my sister or I were saying, "Mommy, can we get out now?  The water is cold." 
Periodically throughout my adulthood I have thought back on those "naps" still thinking how weird she must have been.   Then I had chilren.  Then I discovered the exhaustion that can suddenly overtake you, without warning.  You'll be sitting there- say at the kitchen table.  Your children will be eating an afternoon snack: one in a chair, the other in a high chair.  They'll be talking, squealing, and eating.  Your eyes will begin to feel heavy.  A soft, warm breeze will ruffle the curtains.  You'll think to yourself, "Man, it's so comfortably warm in here.  I feel so relaxed.  I think I will . . . just . . . rest my head . . . on the kitchen table . . . " and then suddenly you're waking up to one of your children saying, "Mommy, I think Alexa wants to get out of the high chair."  and then you register her grunts and pushes and you sit up quickly, refreshed, and with sprinkles from that morning's donuts on the side of your cheek.