Bed Time Woes

Here's a little background before I go into the woes:  Sunshine is 3.4 years old.  DH and I work opposite shifts.  I am on first and he is on second, so I get the luxury of putting her to bed every night.


She is a bear at bed time.  We have a very consistent routine:
1. Go potty
2. Brush teeth
3. Put on night time diaper and jammies
4. Read a book or two or three
5. Call daddy at work to say good night
6. Put on bedtime CD / Lights out
7. Get into bed and sing our good night song
8. Rub her back for a bit and then hugs/kisses
It's a STRUGGLE to get her to get going into her routine. I ALWAYS give her a five minute warning before we are about to begin the routine.  She always says no, no, NO! about some or many parts of the routine.  I get so frustrated that I usually end up yelling and/or put her in time out for not listening/disobeying.  Once we finally get through the routine and I am ready to leave her room for the evening so whines and cries and screams.  I tell her I love her and I will see her tomorrow.  I walk out and she continues to yell and scream about one thing or another.  As things stand right now she is yelling about wanting me to come back in there and doesn't want to wear the jammies she has on (even though she PICKED THEM OUT HERSELF!).  It can take her up to an hour before she falls asleep at night most nights.  Its not a matter of her sleeping to long at nap either; she didn't have a nap today!  I am at my wits end and I HATE putting her to bed.

Any ideas?  Anyone?  Bueller????

Zzzzz...

Why is it that my almost 2 year old does not sleep through the night? Did she not get the memo several months back that she should be doing so by now? It's odd... most nights when daddy and I go to bed Sunshine wakes up after we have been in bed for about 10-15 minutes and cries. It is just a phenomenon I don't understand! Any of you geniuses or child experts out there care to shed some light on the subject????????????

Elmo! Elmo!

I have had the Hokey-Pokey Elmo for a long time; since way before Sunshine was born. She discovered him when she was about a year old and thought he was the coolest thing! He is very old and started to malfunction around the time she discovered him and it was been getting worse and worse, to the point where he barely sings any of the song let alone do any of the movements. We have been telling her Elmo was sick and going to go bye-bye. Tonight we finally brought him out to the garbage. We have a very large window in the living room of our home that looks out onto the street, where the garbage cans are. (Can you see where this is going????) She hops up on her chair that she uses to look out that very same window, sees Elmo, and starts saying, "Elmo! Elmo!" She got so upset that he was out there!! It was sooo funny, yet sad at the same time!!! Poor kid!!! I think we traumatized her.

The War of the Time-Out

Up until now, I can count on one hand the number of times LMS has sat in time-out; for the most part she is a good girl who listens well, however there are times when she pushes the envelope and yesterday was one of those days! While we were visiting Nunny and Aunt Ju-ju, Little Miss Sunshine was touching something that I asked her not to touch several times and told her if she continued to do so she would sit in time-out. She decided to do it just one more time to see if I was bluffing or not; I was NOT, so into time-out she went. Normally she just sits in her time-out chair, whinning the whole minute she has to sit there. Apparently yesterday she had a different agenda because she kept getting up over and over and over and I kept putting her back in the time-out chair over and over and over until she figured out I was serious and she did her time for the crime. I could hear Supernanny, Jo Frost, in my head telling me to keep putting her back on the "naughty spot" until she stayed. Hehe... For the rest of the afternoon, LMS was all about Nunny, Nunny, Nunny as I think she was pretty peeved at me. Oh well. Ya win some and ya lose some, right?

Quite the Scare

My husband says I worry too much; maybe he is right, but here is my adventure for the the day. As I arrived to pick Kayley up from Child Care today there is a fire truck in the parking lot and an ambulance turning in just before me. My heart starts to race and I begin getting VERY nervous thinking that I some how missed a call from them and Kayley's had another episode. I check my phone as I rush out of my car to head into the building; no missed calls. This makes me feel a bit better, but my pace is still faster then normal as I head into the building to retrive my child. As I go past the office there are two EMT's and many other staff from the center crowded in this small area. They are hovering over someone's child who is lying on the floor. I see one of Kayley's teachers, which makes me start to worry more. I get to her classroom all the way on the other side of the building, she jumps out of her seat from snack, and runs over to me, thankfully. Phew, it's not my child this time! Kayley's other two teachers are obviously frazzled and it turns out that one of the little boys in her classroom just had a seizure. Wow.... how frightening. That poor little guy. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers (whatever it is you do) that he is ok!

Eye... Eye... Eye... OW!!!

Poor K! She is cutting her first eye tooth and it's getting the best of her! Over the past three or so days she seems to always have her hands stuffed into her mouth and it chewing. Freeze pops and tylenol have been our best friends!!!

Bedtime Horrors

K has been giving me a really difficult time at bedtime lately. I am sure she is just trying to be in control and assert her independance, but boy oh boy. Enough is enough. I am trying to be consistent with her bedtime routine so that it is familiar and has boundries. She has been really pushing my buttons by screaming, yelling at me, flailing around as I try to change her change her diaper, brush her teeth, and put on her jammies. Argh. I am just hoping that if I continue to keep up with the routine that she will eventually give in and realize that what mommy says goes. I have even begun giving her 5 minute warnings before we begin our bedtime routine so that she has time to internalize what is going to happen. Any ideas anyone???