Tonight's Bedtime Stalls

For the most part, Allie is pretty cooperative when it comes to going down for naps or at bedtime. As a matter of fact, she is pretty great about it.  But every once in a while, she blindsides me with some never-before-used and pretty creative stall techniques.  Tonight Allie called for me from her crib through the monitor right after I had just finished putting her down for the night.  I went back to her and she told me, "Mommy I have a boo boo in my ear right there (pointing to her ear)"  Sensing a stall attempt coming on, I said, "You do?  Well let me kiss it."  Then she got irritated and said, "I need to go to the DOCTOR!"  I said, "you want to go to the doctor?"  She nodded yes.  So I said, "OK we'll go to the doctor next week." 

I thought that would shut her down; but she continued. 

"Mommy, the doctor look in my ear right there and clean it?  She use a wipe on it?" 

I just went along even though I had no idea where she was getting this from.  "Yes."

"Mommy, you stand by me and watch Allie with the doctor?"

Was this still part of her stall attempt??  "Yes, I will" I said.

Then she said it again.  "You watch Allie and stand by Allie and the doctor??" 

"Yes."

And then she stopped asking questions.  She actually had me second-guessing my assumption that she was stalling.  I was actually starting to wonder if she was genuinely curious about going to the doctor.   

But then, as I told her goodnight as I was about to leave the room again, she started yelling out of nowhere, "Ow!  Ow!  My ear!" and started crying in a very dramatic and totally unconvincing way.  Now I felt really stupid.  I couldn't believe she had me going there for a second!

So when I finally got myself out of there and settled back down on the couch downstairs, here it came again through the monitor:

"Mommy!  The TV making noise and wake me up!" 

The TV was  not even on.  I chose to ignore her. 

After a long pause, she tried plan B:  "Mommy I want to give you hugs!" 

Oh please, how gullible does she think I am?!  (Actually, I'm a sucker for hugs..)

Then the dramatic fake crying resumed:  "Mommy!  Mommy!  I want to hold you!"

I went back up there; but the crying had already stopped and she had already moved on to her next stall attempt:  "Mommy, I need to go pee pee."

The good thing is that as irritating as all this is, it is equally as funny and entertaining.