One thing that prevailed last week, particularly where the Princess Nagger is concerned, is it’s obviously imperative that a ‘normal schedule’ is maintained at all times, no matter what. Case in point: One night last week whilst we were all suffering from the plague, Hovering Hubby uncharacteristically stopped hovering earlier than normal one night and decided to go to bed early. You know, because he could, since I’m usually the one that takes care of everything before bed – like cleaning the kitchen and all the bedtime rituals and such. However, it created major consternation on the part of the Princess Nagger, because as I was tucking her in a short time later, she became extremely upset that she didn’t get her ‘ritual’ of her hug, kiss and drop.
I suppose I need to explain that just a smidge – each night at bedtime, she gets a hug, a kiss, and a drop from Dada. The hug and kiss are self-explanatory, the ‘drop’ is any number of methods, her favorite is to have Dada hold his hands close to the surface of the bed, Princess Nagger turns around and stands on his hands – then he lifts her up and she dives, jumps, or whichever form of acrobatic dismount she so chooses onto the middle of the bed. It’s something they’ve done since she was little, and it’s something she looks forward to every night. Heaven forbid it gets ‘forgotten’ at any time, because she is inconsolable until the situation is rectified.
Such was the case the night that Dada went to bed early. He was sound asleep, I told her to go ahead and wake him up, but apparently he was too sound asleep to be woken up. So I offered to do the ritual of the hug, kiss and drop for her. Apparently it’s not the same. Princess Nagger said so. I finally convinced her to let me give it a try, so she did – she was happy with the hug, kiss and mostly happy with the drop, but since I’m six inches shorter than Dada is, she didn’t get quite the ascending height that she normally gets. But she seemed to be happy with the end result.
Except.
When it came time for the usual ‘Good Night’ and ‘I Love You’, she started to cry. Loudly.
PN (wailing): “I didn’t get my Good Night and I Love You from Dadaaaaaaaaa!”
Me: “I’ll be happy to pretend to be Dada and say the usual good night’s, honey!”
PN: “But it’s just not the same! It won’t work!”
Me: “Try me – I’ll even lower my voice if that will help, you know, like this…” (lowering my voice and saying rather gruffly, “Good Night, Honey!”)
PN (wailing): “NOOOOO! Not that way! Just do it the regular way!”
Me: “OK…I can do that…. ‘Good Night Honey!'”
PN (wailing louder): “NOOOOOOO! You have to stand by the door to do it!” (since the final good night’s are usually done at the entrance of the door, not while cuddling a wailing child trying to calm her down…who knew?)
Me: “OK, OK, I’ll stand by the door….ready?”
PN (sniffling): “yes…..”
Me (in a deep voice): “Good Night, Honey!”
PN (wailing again): “Nooooooo! Don’t use that voice, use your regular voice!”
Me: “But I thought you wanted me to pretend I was Dada…”
PN: “Just do it in your regular voice!”
Me: “OK fine… ‘Good Night, Honey!'”
PN: “Good Night, Mama.”
Me: “I Love Youuuuuuu!”
PN: “Nooooo! Not that way! Just do it the regular way!”
Me: “OK….I Love You!”
PN: “No, you have to start at the beginning!“
Needless to say, I had to do it three times before she was satisfied with the end result. She was obviously still not feeling all that well, so when she asked in the tiniest, saddest voice ever if I could cuddle with her for a little while, I gladly cuddled her until she fell asleep – which took all of about five minutes.
Whenever you see anything about kids needing to have ‘schedules’ for ‘security’, believe it. Princess Nagger is all about the ‘schedules’ and things have to be a certain way in a certain pattern particularly at bedtime before she’ll fall asleep.
Thank goodness everyone is feeling human again. 🙂 Now to see about cleaning up the humongous mess the monsters seemed to have left behind…
That is the worst part of being sick, the aftermath. It is like a snowball effect, and it is very hard to get caught up.
My house is a mess, but not because I was sick, but I guess MOVING is a good excuse?
We are pretty “routineless” around here now, but I know when Tara was little I HAD to lay down with her every night for her to go to sleep. 1/2 of the time, I never got back up, that was the problem with that!!!
I hope your week finds everything back to normal!
Oh man, poor PN. Well, poor all of you. I’m glad you were finally able to fake it well and I’m sure she’s gotten plenty of affection from her dad since.
Glad to hear you are all feeling better. Poor PN, missing out on her bedtime rituals with Daddy…what a good Momma you were to try & take his place 🙂
Glad you’re feeling better and it’s true, I wish I can put everything on pause so I can catch-up after getting sick.
Or don’t you wish you can just twitch your nose and everything will be in order?
Have a great week!
Glad you’re feeling better and it’s true, I wish I can put everything on pause so I can catch-up after getting sick.
Or don’t you wish you can just twitch your nose and everything will be in order?
Have a great week!
I totally believe it. routine is everything. It seems to ground them, I think this is why preschools and Schools want you to drop kids off the same way or the same place. My boys are not comfy when their “fly by the seat of my pants” behaviours take over. LOL
That is too funny! Who would have known that routine is that important. I have noticed it in my house because in the evenings I give Jonathan his bath and on the weekends I try to get my husband to do it. One problem, Jonathan won’t let him because only I do the baths. So I have to do the baths and the bedtime routine. It would be different, I’m sure, if Hubby was home at night on the weekdays, but he is at work instead. Still, on the weekend, everything else is “daddy!” including the diaper changes, which is nice for me.
Nothing gets done when mom is sick. Nothing. My kids are pretty flexible about their bedtime rituals, but being sick throws all expectations out the window, they become completely unreasonable. Actually…so do I.
So glad that you and your crew are feeling better! Good luck with tackling the mess. PN is so adorable!! She & my little one have a lot in common. Must always follow the routine! Always. LOL
I usually end up cleaning while sick because I just can’t stand the mess! I always ask hubby what he would do if God forbid something were to happen to me and he always responds that I’m still here so he doesn’t have to worry about it. Men!! My little one has a bedtime ritual too that we have to go through each night.
Oh yes, Dad is part of the routine around here too.
I think we have all had that conversation before with out princesses. What’s with that? Is it in the princess manual?
Ha! That was fun to read, although for you maybe not so much! Routines are big at our house too.
My house is messy just I don’t feel like cleaning.
My husband tells my oldest that I will come in and give her a kiss when I come in from work when he puts her to bed. That calms her down
that is a great story i am sure she will enjoy hearing when she’s older 🙂
glad you are all feeling better.
Glad you are feeling better! I hate when I’m sick — everyone tries to keep up with the house but it is just not mommy clean. Aden can’t go to sleep unless mommy cuddles with him. Last year after my hysterectomy I just had to suck up the pain and cuddle for him to go to sleep. TFS
Hope you have a wonderful Monday
I am glad the sickies have vacated!!!
Here’s to a nice, easy routine-ful week!
Isn’t that the worst?! It’s bad enough you get hit with the plague, and then the household chores have the audacity to stack up when you are down for the count…
It’s amazing how fast it builds up when you’re not feeling well. I’m glad you’re all back to normal. And the schedule thing makes me laugh. My hubby always complains that the dogs are out of control on the weekends when I’m at work. I keep telling him. “It’s because you don’t stick to their schedule!!”
Back to normal is a good thing! Glad you’re feeling better..
Gotta love kid’s routines!
The kids I nanny for like to go to bed by having their Dad carry them up bundled in a blanket. They call it ‘taking out the trash’!