Monday, July 11, 2011

Big Girl

We set up Viv's big bed tonight. She climbed out of her crib last week, so we thought it was finally time.  We put her down an hour and a half ago.  She told us to leave her room and go downstairs, so we said good night and left.  Sitting in his office, Christian heard the thump...thumpthumpthumpthumpTHUMP of her feet hitting the floor and dashing to the door, then excitedly wrenching it open.  He went upstairs to find her naked from the waist down, saying that she wanted to pee on the potty.  He let her, but nothing happened, pee-wise, so he re-diapered her and put her back to bed.  More thumping a few minutes later, this time in ended with her descending the stairs to tell me that she was "nudie-patootie." I brought her back upstairs and let her pee on the potty, this time successfully.  I put her back in bed, laid with her in the dark for a few minutes and told her several times that she was not allowed to get out of bed, and that she could only get up when I came to get her in the morning. I asked her if she understood.  "Mmm-hmm," she assured me.   I asked her to repeat what I said.  "Um, I can get up when it's summer time, but it's not summer time right now because it's dark, but there are stars that will come out in summer time." Well, sure.  So, I repeated what I had said and didn't leave until she repeated it back to me, with only short stream-of-consciousness detours along the way.  However, I was not surprised to hear her door open again.  I went back upstairs and told her that I would not be leaving until she fell asleep.

I laid down on the bed and started to sing, and she reached out her hand to pet my hair comfortingly.  She whispered, "Say 'Daddy'."  "What?" I replied, not understanding.  "Call for Daddy!" She explained.  I told her that Daddy was cleaning the bird cages and that it was time for her to sleep.  This was our conversation over the next few minutes:

V:  I can't sleep.
S:  Are you too excited?
V:  Yes, I'm too excited.
S:  Well, just pretend to sleep.
V (looking surprised): What?
S:  Close your eyes and pretend to sleep.
V:  I can't close my eyes.  They're too little to close.
S:  No, they're just the right size to close.
V (kicking off her blankets):  I don't want any blankets.  They aren't needed.
S:  Fine.  You'll be cold, but go to sleep.
V (waiting five seconds, then covering me with blankets, giggling):  Hide!  I'm hiding you!
S:  I'm going to count to three, and then I'm going to lay you down.  One...two...do you want me to lay you down?
V:  Yes!

This went on for five more minutes, with requests for rocking and another pee break, before I sternly told her that she was absolutely not allowed to get out of bed until I came for her in the morning.  So now she's singing to herself and kicking the wall, but at least her feet aren't on the floor.