Oh hey, Friday! | 5 ways my kid avoided sleeping Wednesday night

Hellooooooo Friday! This has been quite a week, with Wednesday marking 8 years since my dad passed away AND the day we found out we were having a baby girl! Wednesday was also made eventful by Max's bedtime avoidance antics. He usually goes down pretty well for bed, and the most he's done in the past to avoid being put in his crib is request that I read him more books (we could have worse problems, I suppose). 

Wednesday night, though, he pulled out all the stops. I have no idea why he was such a stinker about bedtime that night (he tried more of these tricks at naptime Thursday). By the time I headed back downstairs after getting him into his PJs and going through our normal bedtime routine, it was 9 PM. And between the hours of 9:01 and 11 PM, this is what he did:

1. Unzipped his pajamas. Over. and over. and over again. And every time, he would continually shout "Uh oh!" until I came to zip him back up. He kept trying to unzip them as I rocked him, so I changed him into less-warm, two-piece pajamas and socks...then cranked the heat a few degrees so he wouldn't be too cold.
2. Requested a drink of water. Much like unzipping his PJs, he also requested water a bajillion times. This was pretty cute, though, because he won't say the word "water." He signs for it in his adorable "sign-slang" by poking his chubby little pointer finger into his chin/cheek. He could be whining, crying, or babbling and then get completely silent to sign for water. Cracks me up every time. 

   

   This is the correct sign for water. via

3. Asked to kiss my belly/the baby. This is also pretty cute. However, according to Max, the proper way to kiss the baby is for me to lift my shirt up so he can kiss my bare belly skin. And then he snuggles with my belly.
4. Whine-yelled at the door. This drives me bananas! I don't know who taught him this, but good LORD it's annoying. He stands in his crib (with Curious George tucked under his arm), faces the door, and shouts, "Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh!" over and over again until my head virtually explodes. He doesn't do that any other time but bedtime or naptime. Seriously...who taught him that?!
5. Wanted the Twilight Turtle on...then off...then on. When Max gets upset these days, he can't seem to figure out what he wants. He points at something or says something, so I get/do said item/task, then he freaks out and doesn't want me to get/do that thing/task. I guess he's so distraught he can't make up his mind. Wednesday night, he wanted the stars on, then off, then on, then off. Good grief, kid! 

   

   via

And to add insult to injury, he woke up at 2 AM and did many of the same things listed above for another 30 minutes. I gotta tell ya, poorly-sleeping toddlers are WAY worse than newborns who wake up every 2-3 hours a night. At least a newborn usually just needs to eat or be changed to be happy again and go back to sleep. With a toddler, you never know why the heck they're awake, nor do you know what's going to get them to go back to sleep.

Linking up with
Karli at September Farm
Amy at The Farmer's Wife