In Your Face Nap Time

Very early tonight, Braydon asked me for a bath. The rest of the nights this week he has hid under the table when the dreaded words "It's bath time" fell out of my mouth. He has stood in the tub, hands crossed, face to the tiled wall, in protest of the nightly event. He has dumped handfuls of water at a time on the floor, splashed me during my attempts to wash him, shouted how much of a bad mommy I was being by cleaning him and thrown countless bath toys at me. This is not his typical bath routine, mind you. Before school started we went deep sea diving, mermaid searching and sea shell collecting during baths. But the long nap in the middle of the day has changed our nights drastically.

Shortly after the bath, Braydon came to me with lotion on his hands, asking me to rub it in. The rest of the nights this week he has tried to push my hands away when I tried to rub in the lotion. He has ran and hid in between the wall and the TV, where he knows very well he is not allowed to be. He steped into his pajamas, even doing most of it himself, tonight, instead of the hide-n-seek game he has attempted to play the first three days of this week.

Before I even knew what I was going to cook, Braydon asked me for dinner. The rest of the nights this week he has pushed his plate as far into the middle of the table as he could reach with his tiny arms. He has told me that he doesn't like the food, he's full, or simply "I'm not going to eat". Before school started, he would at least try food, although I can not blame this entirely on the new change because I hear three year old kids are extremely picky eaters. Still, tonight, he ate his dinner and brushed his teeth afterward - another nightly routine he has routinely protested this week.

It is only 7:15 and my son, the bed time routine protester, is sleeping. He has not gone to bed before 9:30 in the last four days, despite his regular bedtime being 8:00, which he is certainly used to by now. I did not have to tell him to do anything, at all. I did not put him to sleep tonight. Tonight, he practically put himself to bed, in a calm and accepting way. Although I have been pulling my hair out for the last 3-4 nights and thinking that this was the beginning to a nightmare, it is clear that situations can change in an instant... just like our beautiful children.