Van Gogh to Your Room!

Emma Kate was in rare form this weekend. She stayed at home on Friday because I worked from home and Mike was there, too. She did not nap on Friday. She did not sleep well Friday night. She did not nap during our first attempt on Saturday. My friend Allyson came over to sew, and Mike played outside with Emma Kate the entire time. Emma Kate took the Zebra and rode him all over the neighborhood. Down to Ma-Ma's and back up the street. She was pooped. Or so we thought.

We put her in bed and thought she would be out in a minute. We heard her in her room--first crying, then talking and eventually even laughing. Mike said,"Maybe I should just go in there." But I, having read way too many parenting books, magazines and blogs said, "No! If she knows that crying will get her out of a nap, she will never go down again. This is a lesson. I don't care if she stays awake for two hours in her room, she is staying in there. There is nothing in there that she can get in to."

If you are a parent, don't ever say those words. After about 45 minutes of hearing her talking in her room, I finally thought we should peek in--you know, just to check.

TIME-OUT: If you know EK, you know that she is very innovative. She has been opening the front door since she was 10 months old. She scaled baby gates since she was 8 months old. The day she learned to crawl, at 5.5 months, she learned to go up and down stairs. So I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. There, I said it so you don't have to. TIME-IN.

As I walked in, this is what greeted me......

On the walls, on the doors, on the carpet, on the bedspread, pillows and bedskirt. Everywhere.

The child had "pain" or "daw" (as she says) on her pants, her toes and EVERY book and stuffed animal in her room.

Now, before you yell at me, there were not markers lying around. They were in a closed closet (which we didn't know she could open) on a shelf (which we didn't know she could reach) in a bag (which we didn't think she would be interested in).

Well, she can open the door, she can reach the shelf (when standing on her giant frog chair which she had pushed over to the closet) and she DOES care about the bag.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning my child and her room. My mom scrubbed her down with alcohol. I am usually the disciplinarian, but even Mikey T got in on the action. Emma Kate has never seen him that mad. She didn't know what to do! He is usually such a push over and she knows it. But this time, not even those big blue eyes or that pouty lip could undo the damage.

She had to help me clean and all afternoon she kept tearing up and saying "dowwy" which is her version of "sorry."

So, when she didn't nap again on Sunday, we didn't fight it.