Bedtime in our house usually goes something like this:
Mom/Dad: “Okay sweetie, time to get ready for bed!”
A-Rae: “But I don’t want to go to my crippy. I want to stay in mommy/daddy’s bed.”
Mom/Dad: “We know, but you NEED to go to YOUR crib to fall alseep…it’s getting late.” (Conversation usually starts around 8pm)
A-Rae: “But I NEED to stay in here and watch Mickey in YOUR bed. (She even emphasizes the NEED and YOUR)
Eventually we are able to wrestle her free of the middle of our bed, into her jammies and then her crib. Once she hits her crib is when things start to get goofy. She is such a sweet, funny little girl that when she borders on the verge of “exhaustion” is when she is at her funniest. Last night, for example, we had a night full of varying extremes. A lot of crying, a lot of laughing, a lot of giggling, etc. She didn’t want to be in her crib…PERIOD. Nothing I or her mother did seemed to be working. Not even the “Ouch…daddy hit his toe again on the corner of your dresser and now it’s bleeding” event. This is where as parents you just need to e creative so I devised a plan which was followed up greatly by my wife. As follows:
It was readily apparent at around 8:30pm that she wasn’t going to stay in her crib and go to sleep. Obviously no parent likes it when their child is upset so I wanted to first get her to calm down. How do you get a very upset little girl to calm down? Easy…..play the “invisible game.” Using my hands as binoculors (sp) I looked all around the room saying “where’s A-Rae?”……”I’m right here daddy!,” she replied. “But I can’t see you when your sad…..I can see Super Grover, Elmo and Muno but I can’t find you! WHERE ARE YOU?”……”I”M RIGHT HERE DADDY!”, with a more distinct voice not crackling from crying. On and on we went until we were able to separate her from the thoughts of doing something that she so clearly made up her mind not to do which was to GO TO SLEEP!
Once calmed down my wife, like a perfect wing man, swooped in and propositioned. “Try and close your eyes for 5 minutes. If you can’t fall alseep we can watch the pajanimals for 5 minutes in mommy/daddy’s bed. ONLY 5 minutes.” Guess what……..she watched pajanimals for 20 minutes. Did she get her way? Kind of/sort of but she was so cute when she came out of her crib lying there with her mom. How do you say NO to beautiful blue eyes when she say’s “I can’t fall asleep….I want to go to your bed 1 more time!”
I love that little girl more then she will ever know!
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