impromptu.

so, i'm sitting on the couch, listening to the baby doll in avery's crib make kissing noises and say "i love you!" and i'm about to cry. that's a lie, i already did cry, now i'm trying to distract myself.

this afternoon, avery didn't nap. (the last month or so, she naps very infrequently and after a good stretch of days of no naps, she is miserable in the afternoon/evening. but that's a little besides the point...) so today, zane and i are downstairs making our monthly menu and we can hear her in her room. and then we can hear things hitting the floor in her room. by the time i went to get her, she had thrown just about everything out of her bed. (she, by the way, never seems to get out of her bed though. i think she's scared of one corner in her room.)

as i was changing nola's diaper, i told avery to get up and put all her animals/blankets/etc back in her bed. she told me no, that i could do it (ha!) and went into the office to play with something. zane came upstairs and told her to pick up her things and she told him to do it. (i have to admit, hearing "no, you can do it!" is pretty amusing coming from her) after getting her back into her room, she still refused so i calmly told her that she could pick the stuff back up and put it where she wanted it, or that i would do it and i'd put it where i wanted it. she told me to do it, and i said "well, i might throw them in the trash if you let me do it". she said "throw them in the trash, throw them away!"

so i did. (truthfully, i threw them in our closet and put a blanket on top. and she found one pacifier and took that back to her bed before i grabbed it). we made a few attempts during the process (i'd bring one thing at a time to the "trash") to let her grab the things she really wanted and get them in her bed. but she didn't do anything but tell us to clean it up and throw it away.

bedtime: she was fine until we get into her bed. she wouldn't lay down and asked for pooh bear. (she also could have asked for her fish, kitty head, 2 hand towels, nola's bear, the bunny, dog, and giraffe. writing that out is ridiculous! she did still have her 3 blankets, cow pillow, water and one pacifier!) but she just asked for pooh, who "holds" her water cup. we explained what had happened in the afternoon and she remembered. i was expecting all out hysterics. but she was as strong as she could be and eventually took the baby doll that i offered to take the place of the other things. we set up the doll with her water and she smiled an anxious little smile with tears in her eyes.

it broke my heart. i wanted to run to our room and pull out every animal she had and snuggle them close to her. but when we walked out of the room and she didn't cry out or protest, i felt like we had done something amazing. and necessary. we stood our ground. we made our point, we got her to understand the choice she had made, and she got it. she's done stuff like this before and we've. caved. and it did nothing to prepare her (or us) for more happenings.

so, we'll see what the night brings. tomorrow morning will bring pooh bear and her dog sitting downstairs, where they'll stay. and i have high hopes that she won't be refusing to pick up her things again when there's a gentle reminder about what we've done before when we get to pick everything up. all is quiet for right now...