the bedtime routine and other random thoughts

Emma used to be a girl who would go down for sleep quite easily - we usually laid her down, turned on her nightlight, and we didn't hear a peep from her until her 7am waking up call happily requesting her morning milk. Oh, how things have changed.

Now, she really lays the drama on thick at bedtime. She's started using stall-tactics (like, as we are walking out the door after tucking her in, she'll say "mommy?" and wait for my response, "yes, emma?" "whove you!" Yes, emma...I love you too, but it's time for bed!) But sometimes, she really cries and whines at bedtime. So josh started a little routine with her.

As he tucks her in, he very firmly tells her, "Emma, there's NO crying, NO whining, and NO fussing in bed, ok?"

She used to respond with a sweet little "ok."

But the other day as I was tucking her in, SHE initiated the routine.

"Mommy! Noooooooooo cryin! Noooooooooooo whinin! Noooooooooo fuffin! (short pause, while emma takes a moment to think) Fuffin! Muffin! Muffin? Wheeeeeeze!"

So from that point on, emma associated the bedtime routine with her favorite breakfast snack of muffins. Now I really can't put her to bed with a straight face. It's the funniest thing in the world!




In other news, we got back from our little retreat to the mountains. It was quite the adventure! Even the lazy people who choose to take the bus/cable car combo instead of climbing the 6650 steps (yes, that's six thousand steps still had to climb some steps - and josh turned out to be super-dad, carrying Emma a whole whole lot! So Josh carried emma on his shoulders while Samantha and I bundled up and kept each other warm in the snugli carrier and we climbed up and down this mountain that is a very signficant part of asian history...or so we are told.

Actually, we had a really great week - even though it was really hazy outside (we were up so high that those were, in fact, clouds that we were inside rather than the typical pollution you might expect from this country) it was still really nice. We especially enjoyed spending time with our friends after all the girls had gone to bed - with uninterrupted pryer and study times, and even having time to play scrabble and other games, we felt like real adults again!

And Samantha had a good time too, but she mostly had a good time playing on the couch after we arrived back at the hotel. During the mountain ascent, she pretty much slept the entire time. Right before we came back to this country, we bought a fleece cover for the front carrier thing, so she was warm and bundled up the whole time. I'd fall asleep too...