Cookies

Tired today. Last night L refused point blank to wear a diaper to bed. She’s not quite 3 so it’s not like you can argue with her about logical consequences. Her killer argument is to scream as loudly as she can until you cave. So, we let her go to bed with no diaper, then before we went to bed I snuck in and changed her while she was sleeping. Feeling quite pleased with myself I went to bed, only to be woken up out of a deep sleep by L, who had had been very busy in her diaper. I wiped her down and tried to put a new diaper on but again she refused. Figuring she might make it through the rest of the night, and wanting to avoid a screaming match, I allowed this and went back to bed. At 3 AM there she was again, this time with a wet bed. I changed her sheets and this time insisted on the diaper and tried to go back to bed – this time she followed me. Although we were religious with K sleeping in her own bed, with L we were a bit laxer because L doesn’t think she’s entitled to something every day just because she does it once. They’re different kids and we’re different parents with them. But sometimes it comes back to haunt us, as last night demonstrated. On the other hand, if she sleeps she’s pretty easy to sleep with – she breathes quietly and doesn’t move much and is very cuddly and fragrant. So eventually we all got back to sleep, only to be woken up by K an hour later. K joined us and immediately begin asking in a loud voice for cookies. Once we got her quieted down the cat came in and started meowing to be let outside and then everyone was up.

Let me explain this. Before we had kids, Ralf and I would sleep until 10 then enjoy a cup of coffee with something chocolaty in bed until we felt like getting up. These were good years for the cat, too, because we would pet him while we drank our coffee. Once we had K we were unwilling to give up these quiet moments so we would give her a bottle with water while we enjoyed our morning routine. Once she got old enough to want cookies for herself, we started getting up early to have our coffee and sweet before she came. After all, cookies are bad for little teeth. Once L arrived, however, the cat was out of the bag. No matter how early we woke up they would hear us and sense the cookies and come so a new morning routine was born where we all sit in bed together and munch cookies while mommy and papa drink their coffee.

This is supposed to be a treat that is earned, i.e., we trade cookies for peace and quiet, but I can’t say it has ever worked out that way since the very early days. Now that the newness has worn off they are constantly angling for extra cookies, fighting over each others’ cookies and generally jumping around on the bed while Ralf and I try to enjoy our coffee. You might wonder how we got ourselves into this fix when the outcome is so obvious but it started out pretty well and deteriorated pretty gradually. We are constantly threatening no more cookies but it’s an empty threat because I’m addicted and unwilling to get up at 5AM and they know it. So basically, mornings aren’t much fun around here. ;-)

Sadly, on the few days the children are not here in the morning, like when they visit their Moma and Popa (Ralf’s parents) the cat usually manages to barf in the wee hours. We are a well-run household where someone is always available to wake up mommy and papa.

The cat is also the loser under this new children’s regime – gone are the days when he gets gently petted in the morning in a nice, quiet room. Instead he gets yelled at for waking everyone up (rightfully so) and pounced on by small children (which kind of serves him right for waking everyone up).