Sleep like a baby?

The person who coined this phrase obviously never had a child. Or perhaps his wife did the night time routine.

She looks like she is having a pretty good time here right? Not too terribly stressed by the fact that her mean parents would prefer that at 3 1/2 she would sleep the whole night here.

Wrong. It seems to be her mission in life to spend as little time as possible in the wee hours of the night in this position. This has been her mission for 3 years now and she is holding the candle. A little recap of our night...sleeping like babies.

1am - I am wakened by Ava standing at my bed. She says "Put me back to bed." I decide to stand firm.

1:05am I tell her we are not doing this anymore and she is welcome to come in and check in with us and give us a hug but no more "tuck ins" in the middle of the night.

1:06-1:15 Screaming fit..in our room..in her room...in our room...in her room.

1:20am She reenters our room to give me a hug and an I love you. Great...put yourself back to bed.

2am Thud, her little feet hit the floor again. She enters again. Mommy...Mommy...Mommy she yells at me. I ask if she is sick or hurt. No, she says. Go back to bed. She stomps her feet around in anger for a while.

3am She once again enters our room. She proceeds to tell me that she can't straighten her blacket out right. GO BACK TO BED and do your best I tell her. She screams in anger again.

3:10 Silence...I get up to see what must be the matter...She is actually in her bed apparently asleep. Said blanket is perfectly placed on her body. Interesting.

3:11 Main Muffin Man is snoing up a storm, I contemplate starting a new novel. Then think better of it.

8:20 am I go into Ava's room to see where she is in her REM state. She lazily rolls over and says, "Mom, can you stay with me while I wake up slowly? I like to get up slowly." Ummm hmmm. I say as nicely as I possibly can.

Somebody, tell me that she will outgrow this!