Bed time trauma

The highlights of being a mom do not include putting an unhappy toddler to bed and listening to her scream and cry for 40 minutes. It makes me so sad to hear her crying, "Mommmmmmyyyy" repeatedly and have to ignore her because I've already rocked her and hugged her and kissed her multiple times and fetched her sippy cup for her and given her a fair number of books to "read" herself to sleep. And she really needs to sleep because she has already dived off the deep end into delirium and tears.

Thankfully, this is not the scenario every night. Often, she happily goes to her crib, stuffed animal "friends" and sippy cup in hand. We pray together, and she thanks God for a whole lineup of people, her house, grandma's house, her bed, grandma's bed, her doors, grandma's doors, etc. She kisses us and hugs us goodnight, and we tell her we love her and leave the room. Well, okay, we usually have to pretend like we are leaving before she decides to give us the hugs and kisses. But the point is that she doesn't always cause such a scene.

However, when she doesn't want to go to bed... That's another story. She'll try whatever excuse she can come up with to keep herself from having to go to sleep. Last night, she actually asked us to cut her fingernails in hopes that it would delay bed time! Unfortunately, she went to bed still needing them cut, but she sure didn't want them cut in the morning. At least we know she is creative and resourceful when making up excuses. That will serve her well later in life, I'm sure.