Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Thank you Supernanny and Wilton!

This morning I woke up and got up before the alarm went off. Both kids were still asleep. S was asleep, again, on the floor of our bedroom. What is UP with that? She's gotten so good at coming in and re-settling herself on our floor that I don't even hear her come in anymore. Of course that's probably because she knows if she wakes us up, she'll have to go back to her room.

Long story short, T ended up missing the bus. Phooey. Now I'm going to have to wake S up and rush her along so I can take T to school. S was a good sport about being woken up, but she didn't approve of my clothing choice for her today. Normally, I'd just let her go pick out something else, but we were already downstairs and she already freaked out when I had the audacity to put her pillow and blanket back on her bed. That's generally not a good sign for the overall tone of the day.

A couple minutes later, S is in the car wearing only her shirt and underwear. She won't put on pants, socks, shoes, or a coat. You know what? Fine. It won't kill her. Right, Supernanny? Right!

The car is parked in the garage, it's cool but not cold and the heat in the car works quickly. I can take T to school without having to actually go on base, which means she can ride pants free somewhat incognito. It's win-win! ::snorts of derision::

Off we go. I get T to school in the nick of time. Whew! I've brought the rest of S's clothes with me and plan to go to the gym and sit in the parking lot and wait for her to decide to get dressed. I pull over and text my workout partner to let her know we are having some issues, when S decides she'll get dressed. That's great! And then she freaks out because she can't put her pants on what with being buckled in by the seat belt. I am amused at the level of rage this produces from my tiny little offspring, but manage to keep that to myself. Hey - I've had days like that too.

We get her dressed, head to toe, and head to the gym. Getting out of the car, S is still refusing to put on a coat. I'm okay with that too. It's a short distance from car to gym, and it's not worth the power struggle. Besides, when she gets cold enough, she'll put on her coat. Probably.

Fast forward through a pretty typical day, and it's bedtime. I've got some food channel show on, and S decides we need to bake a cake. Okay, but not at 7:30 pm. I start to say no, and then I think about it for a sec. I offer up a compromise. She goes to bed without any lip, stays in her room and in her bed all night, and tomorrow she and I will go and pick out a Dora cake pan and make a Dora cake. To my astounding surprise, she agrees and cheerfully - CHEERFULLY people - goes up to bed.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Fast forward to 2 am. I'm awake because of a sneezing fit and finishing up this entry, and here comes S stumbling down the hall. Al my sneezing and nose blowing probably woke her up. She comes into our bedroom and says, "I can't sleep".  Okay. But she can't keep her eyes open as she says this. I walk her back to her bedroom, surprised that I she's not throwing a fit and that I don't have to remind her of our deal. Two minutes later, she's fast asleep back in her bed with very little interaction from me.

Huh.  Also? Awesome!

Dora cake? Here we come!

2 comments:

JLK said...

That's pretty sweet. I wonder how long before I can start bribing my son to stay asleep in bed all night.....

He's 7 months old now, sooooo.............

Brooke said...

S was the easiest baby ever sleep wise. She slept through the night pretty early and it was no big deal to put her to bed. You just fed her, changed her, and put her down.

We've had a few issues since we moved in here, but I think it was too many changes all at once: moving from Germany back to the US, a month in North Carolina, then onto Illinois. Chaos, I'm finding, does not help preschool schedules very much. LOL!

I hope it goes quickly and smoothly for you!