Overnight Fun when you are one

Every once in awhile, it is important for a one year old to be sure that the big people know who is truly in charge.  One of the most effective ways to do this is to interrupt their sleep pattern.  Here is how this works.

First, at bedtime, act real sleepy and rub your eyes.  When asked by the big people if your ready for night night, agree and say yes.  Fall asleep for about an hour. This sets the tone so you can catch them off guard later, and gives you a quick rest for energy that you will need for the rest of the night.

After an hour, the big people are asleep.  Wait until you hear the biggest one snoring.  That is you signal to start your fun surprise.  Stand up in your bed and start yelling.  Start with yelling "hi" real loud in the dark house.  Then call each member of the house one at a time until you have woke up each one and they have told you night night, at least twice.  Then say ok, giggle and lay back down.

Take another power nap for an hour.

Wake up again.  It should now be around 1 in the morning.  This time, real loud start yelling for a banana.   Yell for it over and over, until you wake them all up (again) and they all again yell back at you night night.  Giggle again and lay back down.

When it is 2:30, yell for cookies.  After they are all awake again, fuss a little this time.  Act real put out when you don't get the cookies you called for.

At 3:30, call for anything you can think of to get them awake again.  I tried to yell for a cat and bubbles.  I did not get a cat or bubbles, but I did get them all to wake up again.  It was fun.

Take another power nap, but not until after you lay there and talk very loudly in your bed for another 30 minutes.

At 4:30, stand up and loudly yell "JD, tractor!!"  Repeat "JD, tractor" over and over until you have again woke up everyone in the house, except for JD, because he can't hear you for his snoring.  Get very mad and cry for 5 minutes because he did not give you the tractor ride you wanted....at 4:30 in the morning,

At 6 a.m., throw the bear, water sippy cup and your blanket all out of your crib, with a loud ought oh after each item is thrown.  Make sure they hit the wall or the door for an extra loud effect.  Then proceed to yell "help, help, help", until a big person comes and puts it all back into your bed, lays you back down, covers you back up and staggers out of the room back to their bed.  Then giggle because by now they look funny with hair standing every which way and tired red eyes from lack of sleep.

At 6:30, start to sing and hum, loudly, which is easy because the rest of the house is quiet, until you fall back asleep at 7.

At 8:30, get very mad when the big person comes and tells you its time to get up.  Tell her "no, my night night" and lay back down and close your eyes.  Grab a hold of the sheet so she can't pick you up.

And, that is how you let big people know that you are the one in charge...   And, as an extra benefit  the next day you get a shorter nap and they let you play harder when it gets closer to bedtime!!

The above is a guest post by baby E, a frequent guest in our home, who has always slept a nice 10-12 hour night at our house until last night...

For the proper method of eating lima beans,  read her last post.