107

Today was better. Much, much better. Grace and I enjoyed a lovely walk around the neighborhood collecting as many leaves, acorns, and pine cones as we could find. We made it through a grocery trip without any whining/complaining from her or bribery from me. I tried out a new recipe for dinner and it was deemed a success by both my husband and my child.

But the biggest reason why today was better was naptime. She actually napped easily this afternoon. That wasn't the case yesterday.

The problem all started with this...
We converted her crib into toddler bed. Her first night in the bed went surprisingly well. Mike and I read her a bedtime story, tucked her in and kissed her goodnight, and then we didn't see her again until the next morning when she was knocking on her bedroom door to be let out.



Naptime, however, has been a completely different story. Where I once had an easy child to put down for a nap, I now have one who has figured out she can get out of bed whenever she wants. And yesterday, that's exactly what she did. 107 times.

Yes, I counted.

And it went on for two and a half hours. After about the 50th time of putting her back in bed, I opened up a bag of M&M's- to give me energy and to reward myself for not completely losing it and screaming like a madwoman. When I reached the 100th mark, I had run out of M&M's and I could feel my patience starting to run out as well.

Maybe some people would've given up the idea of a nap at this point, but I desperately needed her to nap so that I could nap- I woke up that morning not feeling well and all this back and forth had left me with a whopping headache.

But the girl would not give up. She would yell out, "Yoohoo, Mama!" or "Mama, I see you!" or "I'm stuck!" When I heard that last one, I wondered, what the heck she could get stuck on since there is no more crib rail to climb anymore. Once, it was her hamper, which she has completely destroyed. Another time, she had climbed onto her changing table and got her hand stuck in the wipes container.

After the 107th time, I compromised by sitting beside her bed while I rubbed her back and hummed a lullaby. That finally did the trick. I tiptoed out of her room and straight into my bed for my much needed nap.

Only to have her wake up 40 minutes later. And grouchy, too, for the rest of the day. So was her mama.

Thank goodness today was a new day and Grace did not get up once when I put her down for her nap. And bedtime was once again a breeze as well. My fingers are crossed that yesterday's horrific nap time experience was just a fluke.



This is what I got when I asked her to 'just close your eyes'. She'd oblige for about two seconds and then burst out into a fit of giggles.

Two and a half hours later and she's FINALLY asleep.