America Does Not Negotiate With Toddlers
2006-02-01, 16:33

Call me crazy, but is it an oddity to be able to reason with a toddler? At bedtime?

to here's the situation: last night, H put the baby to bed - the 1-2 punch of bottle and gentle rocking - and Laurana decided that she was going to be fussy and not go quietly into that good night. We've recently been experimenting with 'let her cry for a bit and see if she settles' - because babies have to learn to get to sleep on their own eventually - and have been meeting with marginal success. Last night, however, I could just tell that it wasn't going to be a success night when H stepped out of the baby's room with the tot all but wailing. Instinct took me into her room, and I stood by her to help her calm down and stop her tirade. Then, with a comforting hand on her tummy and directing her wooby to the right place, I said, "I love you, baby; it's time for night-night."

She looked up at me with her beautiful dark eyes, and said, "mg-mg," which was something unintelligible because she had a mouth full of wooby. Then she pulled away the wooby for just long enough to repeat what she said - "nigh-nigh" - and turn over to her side. Just to see how serious she was about her statement, I straightened, walked out of the room and closed the door: not one peep. Negotiations were over and she had accepted the terms of sleep.

Coincidence, maybe, but, having experienced this child's burgeoning intellect on a daily basis, I think not. She just got the point, that it was time to sleep, and went to it. I think she was too tired earlier to register that that was the situation in the first place, and she just needed to be convinced of the reality of things. If all goes well, all things Laurana will go this smoothly. Yeah.

I called her 'toddler' earlier, because she's been doing a lot of toddling lately. She's been making more of an effort to walk over the last few days, at one point last night taking twelve whole steps in a row! It was awesome and she was super-proud of herself. I also think she's sick of repeatedly banging her knees into our hardwood floors when she's crawling - though her crawl is more frog-like, in that she swings her hips back and forth to get her legs moving, more than actually walking on her knees. I've got to get it on video before she outgrows it; I'm already regretting not getting her Zombie Crawl (when she'd pull herself along with her arms and barely use her legs at all) taped for posterity.

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