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Sparkle (1)
Little boy lies in bed in the dark talking to himself, "Sister was crying and Daddy picked her up. I was crying and Mommy picked me up." Gosh dang - that's some sweet stuff for my little boy to know about the world. And the kajillion hugs he keeps asking for at bedtime are pretty sweet too.
He's working the system a bit, but he's doing it well and this is a WELCOME relief from all last week.
For those who might read this blog, they might recall the night that little girl climbed out of her co-sleeper 67 times before finally settling down to sleep. She did the escapes with little boy cheering her on from his own bed. The next night, little girl again tried the escapes, racing to brother's bed to collapse on it in giggles and for her brother to flop on top of her in even bigger giggles. It was exasperating and wonderfully funny. But she didn't seem to be slowing down.
And then she started climbing out during nap time.
So we plopped her into the crib. She liked the crib. She couldn't get out and she settled right down to go to sleep. All seemed momentarily good.
But then little boy decided the game of mommy standing up and plopping kids back in bed was too fun to miss. So HE began getting out of bed and doing big giggly leaps back into bed when I stood up. He also climbed INTO little girls's crib where the two of them jumped up and down in delightful shrieks and giggles. I nixed that one and carried little boy back to bed. He did his koala hold where he pulls his feet up high as I carried him back to bed. It's such a sweet thing. But, once back in bed, he immediately danced on out. I stood up from my chair just outside the door. He toddler-jumped back into his bed giggling.
That he raced back to his bed means he knows where he is supposed to be. That's good right? I didn't give him any attention other than picking him up and plopping him down (even when he did cute things like try to snuggle or hug or koala me). But he showed no signs of slowing down.
The week continued on in this vein, but we continued to be consistant. We continued to picture the videos of parents in Super Nanny sitting in the rooms moving the kids back to bed for hours upon hours. We wondered what others do. We consulted on our parenting philososphies. We cursed that Love and Logic stuff which we actually like.
I really just wanted to scream and give a good spanking.
We also had quite a bit of extra sassiness during the day with lots of grabbing things from little sister and LOTS of ignoring our requests so we buckled down, made sure we were consistent, teamed up as parents and tried some good proactive stuff like new activities and reflecting and talking about things ahead of time.
(It has been minus thirty again and January was recorded as the coldest month ever for this region so the kids have been inside a lot so the limit pushing seems understandable. AND very two-year old. But argh - it can be exasperating)
Anyway, before little boy went up to bed last night we had a talk and we talked about being a big boy and blah blah blah and he nodded and agreed that he was a big boy and he was very sweet and earnest. And then I asked, "Are you going to run around and play games or stay in bed?". He responded that he was going to run around. (He is honest). I then announced that maybe he shouldn't go up to bed just yet (he loves going up to bed because dad reads books and they play a bit). Little boy said he'd stay in bed.
And he did. So after I tucked in little girl and returned her pillow, binky, pillow, blanket, binky (all that get thrown out of the crib about 5 times before she settles down), I recognized little boy's big boyness on staying in bed. And then he'd ask for a hug.
And he was being good. So I gave him one. And it was SUCH A GOOD HUG. And then he pulled that hug card again. And again. And again.
And now we are at tonight. And he's indeed staying in bed talking to himself which means that sister is settling down
