It started with pretending to ignore us. "Hey Leighton. Time for bed. Night night. Are you sleepy?" Come seven PM, all of these phrases were met with a blank stare.
Two days ago, this acting became too much for little Lei, and in keeping with the theme of open defiance, she made the decision to blatantly refuse to hear us. She puts her hands over her ears and turns her back to us when we start talking about getting cozy for bed. Only the dangling of a toothbrush will bring her back, and only for as long as it takes to effectively brush eleven little teeth.
Naughty.
It's hard not to laugh and thusly encourage such behavior. That's one of the toughest things about parenting - not laughing at inappropriate behavior. The other toughest part is not letting things get to you, and laughing seems an obvious remedy. Catch 22.
How do kids come up with these silly mechanisms anyway? Surely, Ryan and I don't stall lively discussions by putting our hands over our ears. As far as Lei's concerned, she invented this little earmuff stunt all on her own. Clever little girl. Sadly, it does little more than entertain us - she still goes down at seven.
For those of you who didn't answer on the Facebook Fan Page, what time do your kids go to bed, how many hours to they sleep each day (24 hour period) and how old are they? Please post a comment and share your fuss with us.
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