Crafty Monkey Tuesday

We have been dealing with a different sort of “Crafty” around here the past few days. I fully expect (since J. will be out of town this week!) to get some actual crafting done this week. But between the visitors and work projects, I have not seen my scrap desk for another week.

But, we have however been dealing with the very “crafty” Addison Rose for the past two days.

Sunday afternoon J. talked me into taking the crib rail off to make Ad’s bed a toddler bed. Everyone assured me that she was ready, we are potty training, she can almost hang herself trying to scale the crib walls…it was just time.

So we did it. And she was giddy with excitement. Could not wait to sleep in her “big girl” bed. So I put her up for her nap, and Em went up to take a “rest” as well. Soon we heard, “pitter patter” of not one, but two sets of feet. And I could hear Em saying, “shhh…you have to be quiet” as they crossed the top of the staircase and ventured into our bedroom. Now Em has a partner in crime, there will be no rest for the weary around here.

So with no nap on Sunday, and much excitement with all the visitors and fun, by 7:30pm, A. was exhausted. She climbed into bed and with only a little bit of protesting, she was asleep until 7:30am yesterday morning.

I’m all excited thinking, okay – we did have to gate Em’s room for awhile at naptime til she got the hang of it, as long as A. is still sleeping well at night, I don’t care…right?

Oh.My.God. I was clearly delirious yesterday morning thinking that.

A. and I battled for – oh, at least, two hours yesterday afternoon. Thank God my mother-in-law was here to offer some moral support. I just may have run screaming from the house. But Debby calmly reminded me that I have a much stronger will than A. (although you have not seen the resolve on this girl – I’m not sure I do), A. was just testing her boundaries, and it is a very scary time for my poor little girl.

And then the minute I left to go pick up Em from school, she fell asleep. Of course, she did.

As we were eating dinner last night Ad was “all talk.” “Yep” – gonna sleep in the new big girl bed. “Yep” – gonna stay in bed. “Nope” – not going to cry.

I think our bedtime routine took well more than an hour. It usually, just for reference, takes maybe 20 minutes from teeth-brushing to closing the door behind me.

And Addie pulled out every trick in the book. She needed a drink. She needed to take off her Cinderella gown, jammies, pull-up and go potty. She wanted another book. She wanted big kitty out of the bed. NO! She wanted big kitty IN the bed. She needed a band-aid for her boo-boo. Kitty needed a band-aid. And so it went….

I could almost see her gears trying to concoct just one more excuse to keep me in her room. But how do you stay mad at such a crafty monkey when she gives you this?