Our always-independent-yet-usually-sweet 2 1/2 year old son has begun morphing into a rebel without a cause every night. Funny, we have always kept the bedtime routine pretty consistent with the standards--bath, teeth, books, lullabies, lights out. The last item on the agenda is the personality changing trigger. Where the sweet, baby bear loving, Richard Scarry reading, funny little boy goes when the lights swith off is a mystery we have yet to solve. Behind the washer with the missing socks? Nope. Back of the cabinets with the unused souvenier mugs? Not there either...
And who is this teenager inhabiting my toddler's body? Full of "Go Away Mommy, I don't need you, I want Daddy" and "Mommy come back, lay down with me" and "I need a drink of water/more chapstick/another story/socks/no socks" This little mysterious rebel is infinite in the techniques attempted to avoid going to sleep. Even philisophical debates such as "I will be a man when I grow up. Are you a man mommy?" are engaged in the neverending quest for eternal sunshine. And, if a parental attempt is made to leave the room...it is a 2-3 hour battle of hall tiptoeing and strategic sneaking by the above mentioned toddler to escape his room.
Any words of advice? Any other parents of strong willed anti-sleep toddlers out there?
