Julianna almost never naps at school. She will occasionally nap at home but we try and limit that. We sometimes encourage her to just stay in her room for a little while and “rest”. She can get out of bed and pick a few books to read. Generally, this is the plan at home and if she falls asleep, fine.
She has become pretty good at “working” her room. She can even put herself to bed at night to a certain extent. On the nights when it seems like she just isn’t ready for bed, we might even leave the light on, let her pick a few books and then make an “agreement” that she’ll read for a few minutes and then turn her own light off. Many times, this works. We’ll come back 30 minutes later and the light is off, she’s tucked herself in, and she’s asleep.
Today was a non-school day. Today her “rest” turned into sleep. She slept for probably 1.5 hours. No big deal. This does tend to push her bedtime back a little. We had a playdate scheduled for the afternoon so we figured she’d probably use up the extra energy. It all evens out at the end right?
Wrong.
The following just happened:
Bedtime was in the normal window (7:30-8:00). Tonight was my wife’s night with Julianna. No problem.
By 8:00 my wife and I were both out of our respective rooms and down in the living room watching tv.
Around 9:15 we hear Julianna quietly singing to herself (yes, we still have a monitor in her room). This happens sometimes. She probably was just not that sleepy. No problem. She isn’t complaining.
Bonus: She was singing Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” with the following lyrics:
“My mother is the man in the mirror!”
We thought nothing of it.
10:00. She is still singing and whispering a bit…but now we hear her moving around (the living room is below her bedroom).
Hmm…I wonder what’s going on in there?
10:15. We head upstairs and notice that there is full light coming through the bottom of her door. Oh boy…
We decide we are both going in to see what she’s doing. It has gotten a little quiet so maybe she fell asleep…
I crack the door and notice she isn’t in her bed. Oh, she probably fell asleep on the floor somewhere.
Wrong.
She runs over from her closet…FULLY DRESSED!
She has a big grin on her face, and tells us with a lot of pride, that she is ready for school. She had gotten out of bed, turned on her light, opened her window blinds, gotten out of her pajamas, taken off her nighttime pull-up diaper (which she told us she put in the small garbage can in her room), picked out an outfit for herself (which actually matched), went and got herself a pair of underpants, and got herself dressed.
Now, granted, the shirt was on inside out, but…the shirt was a shirt that happened to be on a hanger in her closet. Of course, she told us, she used her little stool to reach high enough to get it. Forget the t-shirts that are in her dresser. She decided that she would rather look through her closet for a shirt that was more appealing…
…and then go back to the dresser to find a pair of pants that matched. I can’t even do that.
She was all ready to go. 10 hours early.
“Daddy, I’m ready to go to school. I’m not tired. Is Chloe up?”
“No Julianna, Chloe is not up. Nobody is up. It isn’t even tomorrow yet.”
“Oh, but I’m not tired.”
“Ok…well…um…as a special treat, why don’t we go watch 1 episode of something (Sid The Science Kid) and then we’ll try this again.”
So now it’s 11:00 and we try again.
Back in our pajamas.
Back in bed.
Reading a few books.
Singing a few songs.
Wondering when my little toddler turned into a big girl.
11:15. I say goodnight and close the door.
11:16. She’s out cold.
So that happened.