Miss Independent

This week has been one of those weeks when nothing seems to go right in the sleep department.  Sunday night Alayna woke up because she couldn't sleep and swore she heard something in her room that wasn't her or Marley.  Tuesday night it was Mikayla, coughing like crazy and needing a drink of water to soothe her throat.  Wednesday night it was Lilly, convinced there was something in her bed--the top bunk, mind you--that licked her elbow.  Last night it was Mikayla, again.

Oh Mikayla, you are at such an independent age.  The first time we were up last night, it was shortly after midnight and I woke to scraping on the bathroom floor.  I immediately recognized it as the sound of the stool being pushed, so I went to investigate.  Little Miss was pushing the stool to the lightswitch so she could see as she got herself a drink of water.  I helped her out, shut off the light and tucked her back into bed.

When Andy's alarm went off at 3:50 this morning, e asked me if I'd left the bathroom light on.  Nope, I know I shut it off because Mikayla complained of it being so dark back to her room.  I rolled over and sure enough, a light was shining in the hallway.  So out we climb from the bed, he into Alayna's room and I into Lilly & Mikayla's room.  Everyone was where they were supposed to be.  Then Andy went into the bathroom and saw a puddle of pee on the floor.  Of course, he immediately started blaming Marley until I reminded him that no matter how big she is, she doesn't know how to turn on lights.  And she hasn't had an accident in quite some time.  So that left one person:  Mikayla.

I snuck into the little girls' room again and pulled back the blankets on Mikayla's bed.  Sure enough, she was no longer wearing her jammie pants.  She woke up as I pulled the blankets back up, so I asked her if she had gone potty.  "Uh-huh, and I went to the bafroom but no on the toilet.  But yook, I put on new panties from my doo-er (drawer)!"  She was so proud of herself, with her panties on backwards but done by herself.  Little Miss Independent was so proud that she'd gotten herself re-dressed that she wasn't remembering that she needs help getting on the potty still.  So I gently reminded her that when she wakes up to go potty, she needs to say something so Mommy or Daddy can help.  Then I told her she did a good job with her panties and tucked her back into bed.  She did a good job, and all by herself, at sometime between midnight and 4 am.  She was quite proud of herself, and how could we be angry with her?  We cleaned up the puddle, put the discarded panties and jammy pants in the laundry and I went back to bed.  As I climbed in I heard Mikayla quietly say, "I do'd it myself, Mommy!"  Yep, you sure did.