Role Reversal
Araella’ a trip these days. An ornery trip at times to be sure. But a trip nonetheless. Bedtime, despite it’s inevitability, is a mini epic every night. We’ve established a fairly standard routine which helps, though we are not usually sure how much she catches on to our routines until she start acting them out on us. Today was such a day. Tara found Araella lying in her bed pretending to be asleep. Coming over to check on her, Araella was doing a rather poor job of pretending to be asleep since she was practically grinning from ear to ear. Tara cuddled up beside her and Araella instantly rolled over and said reproachfully “mommy, you wake-a me up!” mimicking our usual grumpiness whenever she bounds into our bed at 6 in the morning. Continuing the role reversal she inquired “mommy, you ready sleep? Tara played along and closed her eyes which was, for some reason, a cue for Araella to leap to her feet and begin bouncing rigorously on the bed (a favorite pass-time since her trampoline encounter several months ago). Edelweiss (Sound of Music) being her favorite lullaby, Araella lavished on her “sleeping” mother exuberantly between breathless gulps of air while continuing to bounce; no doubt thinking that it would magically put Tara to sleep despite the volume and rigorous tempo. Seeing that it was failing to produce the desired effect Araella stopped and crawled off the bed saying that it was time for Tara to sleep and she was leaving the room. Assuming Araella’s usual sleep-impaired voice, Tara implored “please stay with me and sing.” Apparently Araella knows our ploys better than we thought b/c her immediate response was “ok, but first I going get coffee and then I come back” and she marched out of the room shutting the door definitively behind her; which of course is what we often do because it placates Araella into relaxing long enough to fall asleep while awaiting our “eventual” return.
