Mommy's alarm clock

The sleep battles are being fought in our home, once again. Lately it's been difficult to get Amelia to stay in bed at night and nearly impossible to get her to take a nap in the afternoon.

I'm sure I've said this before, but Amelia's at that age when she really needs to take a nap (or else she's really grouchy) but she refuses. According to our chosen expert reference what we are supposed to do is to repeatedly put her back in bed every time she gets up without talking to her or giving her any kind of social benefit at all. This is easier said than done, though it does seem to be effective.

Of course the other side of this coin is Amelia's wake-up time which has become rather early, in our opinion. At six thirty this morning Amelia was standing beside my bed asking me to "Get down, get down!" My excuse for not getting out of bed was that I was feeding Diana. I guess that wasn't reason enough to ignore Amelia's wishes and she sweetly asked, "How about 'Get down, please'?"

Then in case there's any doubt as to what it is Amelia would like me to do, she will pull back the covers on the bed and push my feet to the floor, one after the other. She also hands me my socks, so my feet won't get cold on the downstairs tile.

I hate getting up so early, but at least my daughter is sweet in her persistence.

Lisa

P.S. Speaking of persistence, a friend pointed me to Parents magazine on line to find a quiz to determine what type of parent I am. I never did find that particular quiz, but I did find a fun one on astrology. Check out their descriptions of Pisces moms and Taurus children and you'll see some of what I struggle with every day!