King of the Stall

Kaden has officially reached the age where he fights bed time. He is always asleep within 5 minutes but feels the need to fight to the death to delay it. He is not the sort of kid to slow down when he is tired. He has to be told he is tired.He has recently became aware of his schedule which usually includes bath, pajamas, vitamin, water, teeth brushing and then a book. It is difficult to stall most of those activities, however, he has figured out how to do it.

Bath is usually ok. Though for some reason having nice warm water poured on your head is terrible but jumping into ice cold water over and over is awesome. The new Nemo loofah is helpful. He loves for Nemo to wash his feet.

Vitamins, he loves. He anxiously gobbles down any flavor of his half a Flintstone vitamin.

This is followed by a drink of water that washes away the bits of Dino, Pebbles or Bam Bam left in his teeth. Usually from his Nemo cup.

Now come the teeth. First of all teeth brushing is a fate worse than nail clipping for this boy. Sometimes he will open like a big boy…most of the time it requires having both hands and feet pinned while trying to get the brush in between clenched teeth. Fun…can’t wait for his first trip to the dentist.

When it comes time to read a book he will take his sweet time choosing one. Then he will usually listen and point out pictures actively….. Until he sees that we are reaching the end of the book. Just as we start to read the last page he says “No, No” and flips back to the beginning. At first we just thought he wanted to revisit the pictures at the front but quickly realized this was a stall tactic.

I guess we shouldn’t have read “The Monster at the End of the Book” to him.

Though a well thought out strategy for a 20 month old.