Ari has had a rough day. She accompanied me as I had to go teach a couple of teenagers English. We drove home right at her nap-time (1 PM), and, naturally, she fell asleep in the car. I tried to distract her for a while, sang silly songs, but gave up as I saw her exhausted little eyes. When Ari falls asleep in the car on the way home, there is NO use in trying to put her down for a nap at home. It never works. And an Ari without a decent nap, is like an Eef without food. We become ugly and mean.
So, she has been running around like a headless chicken, bumping her head on every surface in this house, tripping over her little toy-strollers, throwing HORRID fits of rage, kicking and screaming...
I tried to put her down for a late afternoon nap, but she refused. She cried and screamed till her voice was hoarse...she kicked and flailed her arms. I held her (well, I tried), I sang for her, and nothing worked. Instead, she begged to go downstairs again. She played for a few hours, interrupted every 10 minutes by an accident, a run-in with the furniture..
Finally, five minutes ago, she crashed. I carried her upstairs, and although I knew that she would protest some more, I was convinced that this was it. I was right: she cried for a few minutes, but then fell heavily asleep. At a most inconvenient hour. This is dinner-time. Timing could not be worse. A late afternoon nap would have been acceptable: she would still have time to wake up, eat, and have a bath before her bed-time of 8 o´clock.
But there was no keeping her awake. So, she´ll nap until she´s hungry. I am hoping she will return to sleep a full night after this interruption.
Obviously, I have crashed, too. I plopped myself down onto the couch and decided to rant about the last few tedious hours.
Mothering is still so ruled by timing: even as Ari has entered toddlerhood. It is still a matter of reading the signals....it has just become more straight-forward, in some ways; I know Ari much better now than I did when she was crawling around. Flashback (July 2008):
I do struggle with this:
doing what I know is best for her when she wants something else (and fights for it). She had such a meltdown today.... several meltdowns, in fact. I wanted to fix it for her. I wanted to take the easy way out.. But I also knew that she needed to settle down in the quiet of her room. So, I put her in her bed while she kicked and screamed. I waited outside her door, wondered if I should go back in and "rescue" her, but the crying ended. Just as I had predicted. She didn´t need my hugs, or a snack, or diversion. Sleep was the only remedy.
