Fraud

Beware : This sweet face may look innocent enough, but she hides an awful truth !

I'm hoping everyone enjoyed reading my previous post of how my precious baby girl asked to go night-night last night. I can assure you that every written word of that was true.

Now, for the rest of the story :

At approximately 11:30, I was finally making my way to bed before I heard Elaina crying from her bedroom. It was the pathetic whimpery type cry that caused me concern. As I scurried into her room to check on her, she blasted out a full sneeze (by "full" I'm guessing you know what I mean) and real tears were running down her cheeks. I wiped her face as we cuddled and rocked in the chair before trying once again to put her back in bed. I think that we repeated this cycle about 3 times before I conceeded and popped her in bed with me. Eric has been out of town since Monday night and I was solo for getting the babe to sleep. I'll spare you the details, except that Elaina spent the next 3 hours flopping around in my bed restless and irritated. At 2:00, she sat up and said, "cook ?" Cook ? Oh my Precious Love, cook for you at 2 a.m.? Agghhh. I tenderly asked my innocent child, "Eat?" Then and there, she got her second wind. Note : SHE got her second wind, NOT mommy. Remember, she was the one who had a 3.5 power nap while I was still vaccuuming and cleaning up downstairs. So, we go downstairs for a snack. I grabbed a handful of vanilla cookies for her snacktrap and filled her most reputable leak-proof sippy half full with milk and we go back to bed. At this point, I was content to break every rule of parenting with allowing her to have a middle of the night picnic in her crib if she wanted. As I placed her in her crib, I told her that Mommy would be right back; I was going to get her medicine. When I rounded the corner into her room, Elaina was holding onto her crib railing, beaming smile, bouncing and shouting her cheer, "Mecine ! Mecine ! Mecine !" Could I possibly be a worse mother ? Seriously, my child loves medicine, I was about to let her choke down cookies in her crib at 2 in the morning and rot her teeth out by sucking down milk all night long. Or worse yet, I could suffocate her with my covers as she lay in bed with me. (This was a genuine haunting fear of mine throughout much of her first year although we never allowed her to sleep in bed with us unless she was very sick. It still scares me.)

Moving on, she didn't want cookies afterall (good thing I didn't actually "cook") and a few sips of milk were sufficient. I gave her some Tylenol to help take the edge off and help relieve any type of discomfort she may have been suffering. Again, she wasn't content in her own bed, so back into my bed she came. She finally lay restful and the last time I looked at the clock it was only 2:48. Oh, yeah, and I had to be up extra early (6:30) to get myself and Elaina ready the next morning.

There you have it ... the rest of the story. My child is a nightime scammer. A bedtime fraud. And she does it with those beautiful, big, blue eyes and sweet innocent smile. How could you not fall for that ?