Swim Down!

It is unreal how a 30 lb. child can make it impossible to pick them up. A2 had a fit last night because she wanted to sleep with a pillow. I must confess, she is still in a crib. It's just safer for her (and us) that way. She is very sneaky and we are scared she will get out of bed and do something dangerous in the middle of the night. I know, I know, you are probably thinking, "hasn't she climbed out of the crib yet?" the answer is NO! Unbelievably she has not. She is the child who is fearless and will do anything you tell her not to do, but she has not climbed out of her crib yet and I have just jinxed myself. We'll probably move her out of it soon. Just not yet.

So back to the point. She wanted a pillow and I don't like pillows in the crib so we told her no, not until she's in a big girl bed. We always go to A1's room at bedtime to say our prayers and goodnight to everyone. The girls get under the covers and say prayers while hubby and I get on either side of the bed. We were cleaning the toys out of the living room so we could go to bed. A2 picked up all of her kids (a.k.a. stuffed animals), I grabbed one of her decorative pillows and she yelled "No! I want my pillow." O.K. I thought, she wants to take it to her room. Yeah right, I know now why she wanted it. She planned to put it in the bed with her. She tried to do just that and I said "No pillows." That's when she lost it. Major Break Down. A2 flung herself in on the floor wailing, we call it the flop and drop, and wouldn't get up.

We were trying to make our way to A1's room for our night time ritual. I bent over to pick her up and it was like trying to pick up a bag of bricks. I managed to get her off the floor but she was still fighting me to put her down. A2 was struggling so hard I almost lost my balance. She was almost successful in her plan for escaping. It reminded me of the scene in the movie "Finding Nemo" when Nemo and Dori get caught in the fishing net with all those other fish and Nemo tells his dad to get all the other fish to swim down so the net would break and they would be free. Swim down, swim down!

I finally got her to A1's room and hubby took the pillow. I don't know what he did with it because it showed back up a few minutes later and the whole episode replayed itself. So, we made it to A1's bed and the girls got under the covers and A2 decided she didn't like the arrangements. I was on her side of the bed and hubby was on A1's. "No! Switch, I want Daddy here and you go over there!" No need to argue. Pick you battles and let bossy tell you what to do for the sake of sanity. It would all be over soon. Or so I thought.

"Tell a story" they yelled. "Too late, we'll have to do it tomorrow" I told them. In true fashion, one of them always has to defy me, A1 started to tell her own version of the 3 little pigs. Her story is the 3 little cows. The wolf- a bull. She got to the first house and that took forever so I told her we'd finish tomorrow. It was waaaayyy past bedtime -mine.

A2 and I made it to her room with out incident. Then it appeared. The pillow. It was there out of nowhere and she saw it. You guessed it, Break Down #2. I put her in her bed anyway and told her I wasn't going to cover her up if she didn't lay down. She did and asked for socks like she does every night. I don't know why she has to wear socks to bed. I got the socks and put them on her. Then I had to wait for her to get her kids arranged in the bed so I could cover her up. OCD A2 has to have her blankets turned a certain way and cover her up in a certain order. Don't worry, if you don't get it right, she'll let you know. After all that, she wanted kisses. I leaned in and gave her a kiss but that wasn't good enough. "I want all of them" she says in the sweetest voice EVER! So I gave her the special kisses that only she and I share. I make kissing lips and sounds and she rubs her face around in circles so I can kiss every part of her face.

Once again I had to make sure the blankets were arranged the right way and her kids were covered up. Don't want them to get cold. I shut the door and sat down to read a book. Not 10 minutes later, "Mommy, I need to potty." SWIM DOWN, SWIM DOWN. Daddy's turn. It never ends.