Strong-willed

Yes, I definitely have one of those children. One of the ones who test your patience to the very end. One who can be so contrary that sometimes you just have to (secretly) smile at their inventiveness in being contrary.

I had planned to share pictures of Jacob's baby blessing with you today. But then this happened.

You see, Samantha didn't take a nap this afternoon. So I decided that she would go to be earlier than normal. She was in bed and said night night to me at about 10 minutes until 7. She was happy telling me night night. I should have known it was too good to be true.

I had to go back into her room several times to put her back in bed or to take away the toys she was playing with. There were many tears shed on her part. And then the tears stopped. I decided to peak into her room on my way to feed the dog, expecting to see her asleep in her bed. And that first picture was what I found. Well, sort of.

I poked my head into the room, saw the mattress off the bed frame and said her name. She jumped! And then said, "I in this bed," with a smile on her face. She was proud of herself. And of course I had to go get my camera to record it. Probably a big parenting mistake...but oh well.

I fixed the bed. And she refused to get back in it. She got in trouble. A few minutes later the mattress was off the frame again. She got in trouble again. She refused to get back in bed. I told her that she could get in bed or I would put her in bed. She said "no five!" I told her that if she doesn't want me to count to five, she must get in bed. She wouldn't go. So I counted to five and when she still wouldn't move, I picked her up and put her in her bed. She was crying very hard about this. I tucked her in, gave her a kiss, told her to stay in her bed and walked out of the room.

I heard her get out of her bed, and when her crying became more muffled, I knew she was under her bed. I decided to wait a few minutes to see what happened. Her crying very quickly turned into her "I'm going to sleep momentarily" cry, and then there was silence. I waited about 10 minutes and went into her room to look and see if I thought she would be safe sleeping under the bed for the night. This is what I found.

I decided that she is perfectly OK to stay right there tonight.

And I will share baby blessing pictures with you tomorrow.