Bedtime Tears

As I've said before, we haven't settled into a night time routine with El. Some days she'll take a bath before bed, other times she's already asleep as we pull our car into the garage. On days where she is already asleep, we do nothing but put her to bed.

Last night, she was wide awake though we knew she was sleepy since her afternoon nap happened quite early in the day. We played with her toys for a bit. Recorded ourselves on my laptop and she watched a little Caillou on the iPad.

By the time I brought her upstairs to our room, I figured she would be be ready for "night night." She saw the pink parasol in the laundry basket that contains some of her toys and immediately reached for it, asking for me to open it for her. I told her it was "night night" and we would play with it tomorrow. She threw a tantrum and the more I tried to calm her down, the more she thrashed around on the bed and cried. I knew that the more I gave her attention, the longer it would take for her to settle so I left her with Hubby.

I could hear her crying for a good 10 minutes while I stayed downstairs. Finally, I heard silence and was able to go back to bed with her, fast asleep.

Lessons learned from last night:

1. Put the toys out of sight from the bed or anywhere on the path leading to the bed. Why would she want to go to bed if she could see all her fave things lying right next to it?
   
2. Begin setting a nighttime routine. I believe this is something we'll be able to do once I'm on vacation.
3. Go to bed before El is "overtired." An overtired toddler = an inevitable breakdown = harder bedtime