Tonight - she wins...

 

She is sleeping in MY bed right now. Not her bed, but mine.
Tonight she won the bedtime battle. All of the other nights went okay this week, but not tonight.

Everything was fine with our little Juliette at first, she was happy and playing fine. She ate her dinner and took a bath with such joy that I was feeling pretty confident about the bedtime routine. She was giving out free kisses and smiling a lot.

Picture this:
I peered into Juliette's room and saw her sitting on the floor. Her bed was nicely made (I'll take credit for that) with her Dora Blanket set and a few of her stuffed animals were sitting next to her Dora pillow. She sat there next to Elmo and a little dog stuffed animal pretending to feed them...
"yumm yum yumm," she said after each of them took a bite(pretend food). She hadn't noticed me yet. I watched as she would gaze up at the TV and get a glimpse of Blue's Clues. It was a peaceful scene so I decided to seize the day, well night.

I approached with caution, "Hi Juliette, what are you doing?" I sat down next to her on the floor and said hi to Elmo.

"ommy eat?" Juliette gave put up her spoon and gave me pretend food then watched to ensure that I got a good bite.

"MMM, yummy!!" I exclaimed.

"Mo-mo, bite.." she gave Elmo another bite.

I decided now would be a good time, "Juliette it's just about time for bed." I said this in such a nice way I thought she couldn't reject me.

I was wrong.

"Daddy, Ommy?" Juliette whined. I knew what she was trying to say was,"am I sleeping with you and daddy?"

"No hunny, you sleep in your bed like a big girl and mommy and daddy will sleep in their bed." I put my arms out for her to hug me. Instead, she jumped up and like a bolt of lightning ran to her bed, grabbed her blanket and pillow and bolted out of the room. I started to run after her and as I made my way to the living room, she threw herself on the floor on started to throw a fit. Not just any fit, a huge tremendous melt down. Her legs were kicking and she was bawling while managing to get out the word, "daddy."

Of course when joe heard this he immediately went to her aide(he is such a sucker for her). "Does Juliette want to sleep with Mommy and Daddy tonight?" he asked her as my jaw dropped. There goes all of our hard work from the past week.

"YES!!" Juliette yelled as she jumped up and pointed into OUR bedroom.

Joe reassured me that it would just be for this one night. Yea, okay, Sure, I've heard that before!!!

When we got into our bed, all she would do is play.
"eye," Juliette pointed to my eye.
"nose," she poked my nostril almost making it inside.
"ear," she giggled as she stuck her finger in my ear.
"hair," she pulled a peice of my hair.

"Ouch!!" I was over exaggerating of course.

"Boo-boo?" Juliette leaned in and kissed my head.

"Thank you, now Juliette go to sleep or you will be in your bedrooom. No mommy and Daddy." I kissed her cheek.

"Daddy!" She said as she rolled over and began to tell Joe all of the parts to his face.

This went on for about 10 minutes before I told her once again that it was time for bed. She huffed and puffed, but after another 10 minutes, she was sleeping. And so was Joe. Great.
I was left all alone after battling wits with a toddler and was only trying to make it possible for some alone time with Joe. If I had only told them both "No." But who wants to argue when the odds are not in your favor? A screaming child and her father, both rooting for her to come to our bed....ughhh.

Oh well, I guess tomorrow is another night.. :/