You Go On Up Ahead, I'll Stall

I always put the boys to bed first. I figure Abbie is older, so she should enjoy a later bedtime. Never mind that she naps about every other day now and needs to make up more sleep at night.

Everyone starts the bedtime routine in the boys' room for reading and singing, but Abbie separates after that. I lay the boys down in their room, close the door after Abbie slips out, and send her to bed.

Abbie, being the kind of toddler who puts all of her energy into mischief instead of things like potty training, has discovered the best way to use her time between me laying down the boys and sending her to bed. She stalls.

While I close the boys' door, Abbie runs. Sometimes she runs off to the living room to play quietly in hopes that I'll take the bait and find something else to do, which I too often do.

Other times she runs to our master bedroom to find mommy watching television in bed. From here she has many options. She can snuggle with mommy. She can watch television. She can sneak into the snacks mommy hides next to the bed.

After I put the boys down tonight, I found her nestled next to mommy in bed. She was doing her best impression of a cute child, smiling, cuddling, and keeping a safe distance from the snacks. She wanted to stay away from her bedroom, and was giving me no reason to drag her off to bed.

I let her snuggle with mommy for a minute while she let me watch television in peace for a minute. I then started to drag her, but she resisted.

"Do you want to go to bed?" I asked. "Or do you want to stall some more?"

"I want to stall," she said. At least she's honest.