I am an awesome mom and never miss obvious solutions to annoying problems.

Gabe sleeps beautifully in his crib at night. We put him down to sleep between 7:00 and 7:30 every evening, and he usually just hugs his lovey lion, rolls over, and goes to sleep. Fussing is rare.

Naps, however, are a different story.

I can count on one hand the number of times we've managed to get him to nap in his crib. Usually we lay him down, hand him the lovey lion, and kiss him...and he looks at us as though we've crushed his little spirit. After about thirty seconds when he realizes that we are serious and we really do expect him to stay in his crib because we are the meanest parents of all time, he starts screaming and then rolls over and pokes his hands through the crib bars in a desperate attempt to escape. It's pathetic and awful and after five minutes of listening to him cry I inevitably give up and go pick him up.

He'll nap in his stroller, Ergo sling, and car seat no problem, but he hates the crib. (Silver lining: taking Gabe for two one-hour walks a day in his stroller or sling went a long way towards helping me lose the baby weight. Hooray!)

Anyhow, I am sick (yet again, I know), and lack the energy for a good long walk, so I decided I would make an effort to get Gabe to nap in the crib this morning.

And much to my shock and surprise, he babbled quietly to his lovey lion for about five minutes, then rolled over and went to sleep. NO CRYING!!! It's practically a miracle!! That's right, after eight months of struggling we achieved a successful crib nap!

What did I do differently, you ask? What marvelous parenting technique did I employ?

I closed the blinds in his room so it would be dark in there.

I am such an idiot.