late night ramblings

Cha woke up screaming this morning at 2:09 am. She usually sleeps very well in her toddler bed but we have a baby gate on her door for the times she wakes up and wants to sneak into our room. We used to allow it until we realized that when she climbed into bed with us she spent all night using us as a jungle gym so we're trying to break her of the habit. Tonight I think one of the kittens climbed over the gate and woke her up.

She was standing at the gate screaming for me so I picked her up and immediately sat in the rocker with her on my lap. I calmly asked her what was wrong and she said she wanted to sleep in mommy's bed. I told her no, that she slept in her own bed but we could rock a little while. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes while she spent the next ten minutes repeating 'sleep in mommy's bed' over and over and over. She eventually slowed down so I was hoping that she'd go to sleep but then she switched to a chorus of 'mommy wake up' again and again.

I finally picked her up and put her in her bed. She cried for a minute so I sang to her a bit until she calmed down. She sat upright in her bed and told me to sleep on the floor. I laid down and grabbed a stuffed rabbit for a pillow. She mellowed out but I knew I was stuck there for the next half hour until I was positive she was asleep. If I waited 25 minutes and tried to get up she'd cry and the whole thing would start over.

So, I laid there quietly not able to sleep. To keep my sanity I think back on all the wonderful Cha stories to remind myself that the good far outweighs the bad. Tonight I thought of the trip to the Good Will we made this afternoon.

She is such a sweet, social little girl. She talks to everyone and is always singing or chatting to herself (wonder where she gets that??). We go to the Good Will a couple times a month and I always let her play with the toys and pick out a bear. (It's only 97 cents and it helps keep the peace.) Today she found a stuffed dog which she carried around the store while I shopped. She talked to him and showed him all the different trinkets. I'm lucky that she's never had the need to touch everything. She can stand in an aisle of breakables and just look.

We got in line to check out and Cha took the dog over to a table of Christmas items that was next to the cashier. She played there while I stood in line. All the other shoppers commented on what a sweet, well behaved little girl she was. The cashier was an older, heavyset woman who we've seen a dozen times. She's never pleasant and barely tolerates the customers. There were several people in front of me so she was especially grumpy by the time I reached the front of the line. She bagged my items and I told Cha that it was time to go home.

She continued to play for a couple more seconds as I started to walk to the door. I asked her to come and she said 'Wait a minute'. Then she walked up to the cashier, waved and said 'Bye Bye. Thank You'. and walked away. The cashier smiled and said 'Take me with you!'

So that's the happy story that kept me from losing my mind at 3:30 in the morning. Every day I think about how happy Cha is, and my daily goal is not to mess her up!