kaya's variety show

I have to brag on my two kids and their sleeping. They both are the best sleepers, they sleep 13-14 hourse each night & still enjoy their naps. They love to sleep, unless, they are in my bed. Trying to sleep with them (especially Kaya) is like Matt says, "Sleeping with a wild cougar or grizzly bear." I should just learn to accept this but last night I seemed to forget how true his statement is.

Because Kaya always sleeps through the night, I was so shocked to hear her hysterically crying at 2:30 this morning. I ran to her room to find her all tangled up in her shirt. Somehow she had gotten her head stuck in her sleeve and, understandably, was extremely upset. I fixed it for her but she was still sobbing. I tried to put her down but she kept crying. I'll just take her to bed with me to sleep then, I thought. She clung to my neck and snuggled her sweet head on my shoulder. Oh this will be so sweet to hold her and snuggle with her......

Then we get in my bed. I could see by the light from the window the giant grin that immediately filled her face. The first act of the Kaya Variety Show was about to begin. She immediately started jumping up & down and tried to scale the headboard. Then she would fall back on my pillow and giggle. After this act was performed for several minutes I finally convinced her to rest on top of me.

Sweet sleeping success, I thought.....wrong again.

While she was moderately still, this was when she started talking about all of her little friends she sleeps or plays with. At first it was "DoDo, DoDo (Dora)". This was followed by "Elmo", "Night, Night (the grinch), "Who, Who"(her owl), "Ruff, Ruff" and then just for fun she started saying "Go Cowboys" over and over. She seemed so proud of herself to be reciting these words continuously.

I thought she was finished but then she started singing for me. She kept singing "Row, Row,Row,Row, Row", her version of Row, Row, Row your boat. All of a sudden she heard her daddy stir in the bed. That was when all hope of her being still and going to sleep was over. She then started yelling, "Daddy, Daddy" as loud as she could and tried to slam into him as hard as she could.

After the excitement of seeing Daddy, she continued to flop around, flip, & climb for another 30 minutes or so. The whole time she is grinning and laughing. During her Variety Show final act she was trying to do backbends in the bed. So that was when I decided to close the curtain on this little cutie's act.

I shuffled her off to her room in my arms, resigning myself to the fact that I would be in her room the rest of the night to comfort her and make her go to sleep. I told her, "Kaya, its time for you to go to sleep but Mama will be here if you need me."

We got to her crib and I put her down, just knowing the worst was to come. Kaya looked up at me and said "Night, Night", grabbed her owl, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and rolled over. I didn't hear a peep from her again until 8 this morning.

I can't figure out if she is always so wild in our bed because she doesn't want to be there or because she truly is a little performer.

I'll never know the pleasure of snuggling up with and sleeping with my little girl. I guess a one-year-old girl just needs her own space as much as I do.