I'm getting annoyed, so to keep my humor up, I'm going to record all the things Aurora needs from me before she falls asleep. All begin with her yelling, "Mommy!? MOMMY!!! MOMMYYYYYY!" She is swaddled in her special blanket from my mom, so she doesn't want to get out of bed...this is a GOOD thing. LOL....
1. "Shut my closet door!"
2. A: "How many princesses am I supposed to have?"
Me: "I don't know. We can count them in the morning."
A: "Why?"
Me: "I think you know the answer to that. It's sleepy time."
A: "I think I have 7!"
3. A: "My snack is missing!"
Me: "You lost it because you spit at Daddy."
A: "No I didn't!"
Me: *silence*
A: "I did it because I was trying to get rid of him...I wanted lay down time with you."
Me: "Well, I hope tomorrow you will not spit at anyone. Good night, Aurora."
4. A: "I dropped one of my princesses!"
Me: *I hand it back to her* "Goodnight, Aurora."
A: "Thank you!"
Me: *Walking to the door*
A: "You didn't say 'You're welcome'!"
Me: "You're welcome."
A: "Now say goodnight."
Me: "Goodnight."
5. A: "MOMMY! CAN YOU PLEASE BE QUIET! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
Me: "Daddy is putting away some groceries. He will be quiet soon."
A: "Well, tell Daddy to be quiet because I'm trying to sleep."
Me: "You tell Daddy, he can hear you just fine."
A: "DADDY, CAN YOU BE QUIET?! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. BE QUIET! DADDY! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP! PLEASE BE QUIET DADDY!"
6. A: *knocking on her door repeatedly* "DADDY! DADDY!"
Me: *opens door and stands there waiting*
A: "Tell Daddy to come in here and say 'sorry' for making noise!"
Me: "It is sleepytime Aurora. Goodnight."
A: "Tell Daddy I still hear buzzing!! Tell him to go bang on the fan!"
Me: "Goodnight, Aurora."
7. A: "Daddy! DADDY!"
Wil: *walks in and waits*
A: "The fan is buzzing! Hit it to make it stop!"
Wil: "The fan is still warming up, give it a few minutes."
Most of these were in rapid succession but there were a few breaks where, if I listened closely, I could hear her talking to herself. :)
The great thing is that this is actually an improvement. We've been working for ages to get her to simply stay in her room at bedtime and she has, finally, started controlling her impulse to dash out of the room and giggle maniacally about disobeying us while running in circles around our furniture... We want to encourage her to stay in her room, so contrary to popular parenting opinion, we do not ignore her but try to respond quickly to reinforce her staying in her room. :)
~Regina