The Plan

Alli loves making plans.  Sometimes her plans are negotiations for things that we suggest, and other times she just makes up plans.  These are usually plans of what we are going to do in the near future, like for the day, or after dinner, etc.  So last night, she asked if she could have candy for dessert.  And we said no.  She didn't eat a good dinner, she was out of sorts all day long, and she had had lots and lots of sweets since we went to three different Easter Egg hunts over the weekend.  Well, she didn't like that answer so she came up with another plan (which of course got her candy).  And we said no.  Now typically, her negotiations work because she comes up with a plan that's reasonable and we will except them, or part of them.  But last night, no matter what the plan, the answer to getting candy was no.  She was pissed, but finally gave up and watched a bit of a movie before bed time.

I went to go nurse Natalie to sleep and I told Alli (and Kim) that in 10 minutes, the movie was to go off and she needed to brush teeth and go to bed.  Both said okay.  I nursed Nat, who went down quickly and then came out to remind the two that it was time to get Alli ready for bed.  And Alli said "I want a pear for dessert".  And we said no.  Not because that was a bad idea, we would have been happy giving her a pear for dessert - the hour before, but not right at bed time.  So she tried to negotiate again and offered up apple sauce.  No.  No, no, no.  We weren't budging.

The "I HATE YOU"s went flying.  We were horrible parents.  And there was crying - lots and lots of crying and begging.  Kim tried to reason with her and told her that if we gave her her way because she cried, it would just make her think she could cry and get her way all the time.  Ok.  She understood that.  So then she tried to butter him up!  (Smart girl.)  Unfortunately, the answer was still no.  But she was starving!  No.

This went on for a while, but Kim finally got her calmed down again and she went to bed.  Whew.  What a rough night.

Well, at 3:30am, she started whimpering from her bed.  We thought "crap, she had an accident".  I got up to go check on her.  I felt her butt but nothing was wet.  I asked what was wrong.  And do you know what that little stinker said?  "Mom, I have a plan...  If you give me apple sauce before everyone wakes up, everything will be okay."  Are you kidding me?  3:30am for a plan!?!?!  ARGH!!!  I told her we do not make plans in the middle of the night and to just go to sleep.  I couldn't believe it!!!  She wasn't very happy when she woke up either, because she realized that she did not succeed with any of her plans, but that sadness got turned around with the promise of candy that night if she was good and pleasant all day.  :)


Speaking of plans, my plan is to keep getting up in the middle of the night and pumping extra milk until Natalie starts decreasing her milk consumption and increasing her solid food consumption.  The problem is, that little punk won't eat solids!!!  Every time we try, she just pushes all the food out with her tongue.  She's just not ready.  I think she's in cahoots with her sister to make sure mommy stays extra tired for more months!!!  ;)