Usually, we bring Dylan upstairs to bed at 8PM after we brush his teeth and change his diaper. We feed his Eli Fish (read: betta) and tuck him in and then assume our position on the couch in his room where we wait until he crawls out of his big boy bed, and then we scoop him up and put him back into bed as many times as it takes until he goes to sleep. Sometimes it doesn't take any scooping, he goes to bed by himself right away, other nights it takes thirty scoops before he conks out. Sean and I have an every-other-night policy. If it is my turn to put Dylan to sleep Sean will brush his teeth and do diaper and vice versa. It's tiring. But our kid goes to sleep and usually in less than thirty minutes.
He's getting older now. Nineteen months. And so I'm giving him more liberties. He helps me feed the dogs their dinner everyday. He feeds our fish. He likes to be involved in making dinner, or cleaning up, or brushing his hair. Little rites of passage which slowly separate him from his babyhood.
Lately, he's outsmarting me. When he goes into timeout--and he does almost daily--he tests me. I turn around and face my back to him and he immediately sneaks off of his timeout chair and laughs. He calls my bluff, sure my back is turned but he knows that I will give him attention if he's being fresh.
So I'm trying new techniques. During timeout today I counted to 60. Told him he has ONE minute until he can get off of that chair. Sixty seconds for hitting Avery. We don't hit the dogs, Dylan. And wouldn't you know it, he sat there for that whole minute as I counted. Didn't move, didn't slip off the edge of his chair and run towards the back of my legs. Ah ha!
Motherhood is all about switching things up until they work.
So now that he is nineteen months he deserves to go to bed like a big boy. We did our routine--teeth, diaper, Eli Fish, kisses and cuddles--and then I said goodnight and left the room. He climbed out of bed, ran to the gated door and cried, and then climbed back into bed and was asleep five minutes later. from the seclusion of our bedroom I waited for him to climb out, but he never did. Did that actually work? I'm thrilled. Let's see if he can put himself to sleep so nicely again tomorrow. Until then, I will happily blog instead of waiting to scoop him and put him back into bed.
