A Few Bad Nights

Taeya looks so innocent while she sleeps in this photo but what you can't tell by looking at this sleeping beauty was that the 2 nights previous to this she was so aweful. I don't know what gets into her sometimes but she had a few bad nights. Both night we would put her to sleep and read her a few stories, she got mad because she wanted more stories so we gave her a stack of books and told her to read them on her own. So she reads for a while than she starts coming out of her room. The first time we put her back in and tell her if she comes out again we will turn her lamp off, she comes out again so we turn the lamp off. She comes out again and we tell her she will go to time out if she comes out again, she comes out again so I stick her in the dark basement with no lights on, she comes out of time out before the timer goes off laughing. We try putting her outside for time out, she goes onto the grass and starts dancing and laughing. We got mad and put her back in bed and she started kicking us, and that's when we got really mad. After the 2nd night of this escapade I was livid. I had tried being nice and patient, I had tried being mean I tried taking away priviledges like books at bedtime, or snacks at bedtime, or playing with friends, but that didn't seem to work either. Amongst her kicking and thrashing in the attempts to keep her in her bed she somehow got hurt and started to cry. This seems to be the moment when we get her attention and we start talking. I told her she has lost all the toys and books in her room, I start packing them up as Gordon is talking to her and she finally calms down. We told her if she doesn't start acting nicer and go to bed we will take away her swim suits - she got really sad about that and then finally went to sleep. (She really loves her swimsuits.)

We told her that each night she went to bed like a good girl she would earn something back. So the third night she goes to bed somewhat happily with no stories, no water, no snacks and no toys - at least I didn't think there were toys in her room. Gord and I checked on her before we went to bed and apparently we forgot about the tall tall barbie, a baby, and 1 stuffed animal.

But don't worry, she had tucked them all into bed nicely!! And thank goodness we haven't had bad nights like that since.....anyone have any good ideas on how to raise a "spirited" child?!!