Abby's rebellion

After the longest pajama-changing struggle I've experienced in recent memory, I finally got Abby settled down and ready for bed. The evening began with a bath and Abby is quite fond of baths. She especially enjoyed it as she got the whole bath to herself when she usually has to share it with her two brothers. She was frolicking, splashing, playing with toys and so on and then I gave her the warning that it was almost time to go to bed. At that point, she started her rebellion. She laid down in the bathtub and looked at me, daring me to pick her up from that awkward position. Matthew has mastered the bathtub-lay-down strategy as well as a way to prevent parental pick-ups and extraction from the tub from easily occurring. Abby has never seen this strategy as she is always in bed by the time the boys are finishing up their bath, so apparently knowledge of this strategy has been passed along in other ways.

So anyway, she laid out in the tub and I got her up, then she laid down again. Picking up a lying down, wet, slippery kid from the tub is not an easy task, but I finally managed and laid down a screaming Abby on the towel. She continued her rebellion as I tried to get her into her PJs. She kept on rolling halfway over and just screaming as I tried to prevent her rolling over. I was trying to put on her diaper at the time and would just get the diaper under her bottom, then I'd get the diaper cream out and she'd roll over, shifting the diaper around, so I'd roll her back with much effort, then replace the diaper, get some cream and she'd roll over and displace the diaper. So then with my fingers covered in diaper cream, I'd roll her back, replace the diaper, cream up her bottom and finally I got the diaper on. Goodness. What a loud, arduous struggle! And all I had gotten on Abby was a diaper!

Then came the PJs. Abby was still in a sour mood so I tried singing, tried giving her Sheep (which she disdainfully threw to the floor), tried giving her a comb and headband (which had fates similar to Sheep's) and finally she banged her head on the edge of the changing table and really started crying. After some cuddling she settled down and acquiesced to having her PJs put on. Wow. I don't know how long the struggle took, from extraction from the bathtub to getting on the PJs but it was much longer than it should have been. The rest of the bedtime routine went much more smoothly and now Abby is peacefully sleeping.

After getting the boys easily to bed, I came downstairs quite tired, but wandered around picking up the straggling toys that didn't get put away at pick up time. Every one chipped into pick up, including Abby. Matthew picked up puzzles, Sam picked up cars and Abby picked up her shoes which she had brought out from the laundry room and into the family room. I told Abby to put her shoes in the laundry room and to my surprise, off she went toward the laundry room. She came back and we found her other pair of shoes and off she went to the laundry room again. I was again surprised, but didn't think too much about it.

Then during my picking up, I wandered into the laundry room and saw Abby's shoes. Both pairs of them were in the washing machine. Awwww. All the exasperation I felt earlier from the bedtime showdown melted away as I looked at her two little pairs of shoes in the washing machine. I don't know why something like that is so touching and cute, but it sure is a blessing to be able to appreciate something as simple as shoes in a washing machine placed in there by my baby.