Lately she's been resisting going to bed, like all good toddlers. I thought she was weird when I would put her in her crib, and she would quite happily talk to herself or her myriad of stuffed animals in her crib until she fell asleep. But I didn't question it; I just thanked my lucky stars.
Within the last couple of weeks, every time I've put her to bed, she's cried. Now I'm not the type of mother whose heart gets ripped out if her kid cries, so it didn't bother me too much that she cried for a while before she fell asleep. I would rather she not do it, however. But since I knew she was not hungry, not wet, and needing nothing more from me, I figured she was fine.
A few nights I tried singing to her. This is what my mom did for me and my brother when we were small; I remember her singing "Amazing Grace" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to me every night before bed, and it's quite a fond memory of mine. So I figured what worked for me and Mark ought to work for Grace. I don't recall if she did cry when I put her down in her crib after I sang to her, but I did enjoy the one-on-one time we were having as I sat in her rocking chair and sang to her.
I hadn't sung to her in a few days; lately I've been sort of rushed for whatever reason in putting her to bed. Maybe she sensed that and wanted more of my attention. Granted, she gets at least 85% of my attention at any given moment throughout the day, but maybe she was really enjoying the cuddle time right before bed.
Tonight after she showered and got in her jammies, I mentioned it was "time to go night-night." That made tears well up in her eyes, and she started whining a bit. So I picked her up, turned down the light, cuddled her against me, and sang "Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot," the only two verses I know. Then as soon as the song was over I laid her in her crib, gave her a book and her monkey (she always sleeps with one of two monkeys), told her I loved her, and left the room.
Not a sound emerged from her room, and even ten minutes later she's still silent.
The only thing about parenting, though, is just because this worked TODAY does not mean it will work TOMORROW!
Oh well. At least Grace went to bed quietly tonight!
Another little mini-rant:
Now I am not a prude. If you want to parade around town with a lot of flesh showing, more power to you, especially if you've got the body to carry it off.
However, if you're at work in any sort of profession short of exotic dancer, you better cover most of your body. It's just not professional to show flesh.
Why do I have to be assailed with naked flesh by waitresses when I go out to eat?? We're not talking Hooters here, where the waitresses are encouraged to allow the men to view the merchandise, as it were.
Yesterday I took Grace out to lunch at one of the downtown cafes here in town, a place I hadn't been to before. We sat down at our table, and a waitress came by to give us a menu. This waitress was wearing a shirt a bit too short for her figure with pants that were definitely too low for her figure. This resulted in a bare midriff shoved into my face, as I was seated and she was standing. Every so often, the waitress would twitch her shirt down so that the amount of flesh revealed was minimized, but she was always showing at least three inches of skin from the back.
I wouldn't expect a cafe waitress to wear a skirt, heels, and a tuxedo top, but I just don't think it's appropriate to go to your place of business showing your midriff.
As an aside, the other waitress in the establishment was wearing Seven jeans. I know this only because there was a tag hanging out on the obscenely long cuff she had rolled in her jeans. Now if I were going to go out and spend at least $150 on a pair of jeans (the average going rate on a pair of Seven jeans), I'd at least get some jeans that were flattering! These ones squished her butt so much that she looked like Hank on that episode of King of the Hill where he ended up having to get a butt prothesis because he had no ass. You'd think expensive designer jeans would look better on a person!
No, thanks... I'll stick to my Lane Bryant and/or Target Lee jeans, thank you very much! *wink*