Bed Time

There is no other time that will test your patience as a parent then bed time.  Some of you will be lucky and your child will actually want to go to bed.  For the rest of us bed time is a ritual in which we lay our children down then hope and pray they actually fall asleep.  If the child is still in a crib it is a little easier.  If they stay up they can't get into too much trouble.  If they have transitioned into their own bed and have full run of the room that is where the fun starts. You'll hear random thumps and things banging through the night.  You'll lose count of how many times you open the door and threaten your child to go to sleep or else.   The greatest is when your kid amasses a pile of random stuff behind the door so it's hard to open.  Usually it's a blend of books, toys, clothes old baby stuff and things you thought you threw out two years ago.   You will wonder if your child lays there awake in bed and tries to scheme up the best way to piss you off.  Most of their attempts will be successful. 

Recently my aunt came to visit and I talked to her about our bed time woes.  She told me what our grandfather had the kids do.  He'd let them watch tv as long as they laid on the floor and were quite.  Usually they'd end up falling asleep and he'd carry them to bed.  I remember as a kid doing this a few times myself.  I thought it was a good idea and decided to implement it last night.  I was a little excited while I pulled out Luna's sleeping bag and laid it down.  Grabbed a pillow.  "Ok, you can lay out here but you have to lay down.  We're not going to watch what you want on TV.  Daddy and Mommy are watching a movie, if you do not lay down you're going to bed."  Of course Luna agreed.  Anything to stay up longer.  She actually laid there for about 5min then...

Luna said.  "I don't want to watch this." 

Me:  "Do you want to go to bed?"

Luna: "No"

Me: "Well lay back down or go to bed"

Luna laid back down and actually looked as though she was drifting off.  Until she found one of Enzo's baby toys.  It rattled and was made to be a teething toy but some how the toy makers made the circle just big enough to put around a 2yr olds arm.  So now it was a rattling bracelet.  Luna figured if this baby toy was fun the others might be too and started messing.   Then I started to see my plan failing.  I kept telling Luna to stop playing with that stuff or she was going to bed.  A few times I did the "ok you're going to bed" and made the movements like I was getting up.  Of course Luna scrambled back into the sleeping bag.  It ended up being another loss and eventually she was put in her room.  She didn't make a mess in there which was a plus.