How To Torture Your Toddler

For months now (about 3) Minnow has been going to bed on his own and awake. He will sometimes cry until the other parent comes to hug him good night, but most of the time he just goes to sleep.

Now napping is another story. We didn't have a nap routine. Sometimes he would fall asleep in the car others he would fall asleep with me while watching a little SpongeBob. This week I decided that whether he was falling asleep or not 12:30 is nap time. That is when he is tired and gets really crabby. So, on Monday it was 12:30. I took him upstairs and explained to him that it was sleepy time. He wasn't having any of it. He looked at me and screamed--so clearly wishing he could say "you are absolutely crazy woman, I am not napping." But he can't talk so I could pretend I didn't know what he was trying to communicate.

I let him cry for a few minutes and then took up 3 of his SpongeBob books. I figured if he wasn't going to sleep that was fine but he was staying in his crib and read. He read for a few minutes and fell asleep. It was nice. I take the books out of his crib when he wakes up from his nap, since he doesn't need the books at night.

To make this short story even longer...I took Minnow up to bed last night. He was sleepy and obviously ready for bed. He laid down and before I was down the stairs he started screaming. And not just unhappy to be in bed screaming, but someone was torturing him screaming. I waited a minute or two but went back up to see what the problem was...as the screaming only got louder.

The minute I walk into his room, he says "pweeze, pweeze, pweeze." I look into his crib and the poor little guy is sitting in the dark, holding his books and trying to read in the dark. Mommy forgot to remove the books and the little guy just wanted to read.