I only have the four year-old with me this evening, since Grandma has adopted the one year-old and he's slept with her every night for the past week. I'm wishing I had the one year-old since the four year-old (hereafter referred to as FYO) is refusing to go to sleep. God knows he is tired, but he won't budge.
Have I mentioned the battles I'm having with him these days? I'm ignoring him at the moment in the hopes that he will give up and go to bed. I tried the positive parenting about 30 minutes ago. I read him books, I tucked him in bed (well, actually, in futon), and I left the door open a crack as he requested. When he popped out, I gave him a loving reminder that he doesn't have to sleep, he just has to stay on the futon.
Instead, he raided the Costco box and asked me what the big box of couscous was. I explained and led him back to his futon. He popped out again and I tried bribery and threats. "Daddy will bring you back a present from Germany if I tell him what a good sleeper you've been." When that didn't work, I told him that his present will go to his brother if he doesn't go to sleep. (Okay, not exactly one of the techniques recommended in "Siblings Without Rivalry" but I just wanted time to surf the web and get some things done.)
Neither bribe nor threat worked, so I'm now ignoring him. He's whined at me, taken off his pajama top, tried to rip up the fake lino floor, found a one yen coin and stuck it 3mms from my eye. I'm shocked he hasn't slapped the keyboard yet, but he has tapped my arm in a moderately threatening way. I'm determined to ignore him and open a beer soon.
I could cave and lie down with him, but sometimes I just need to prove that I have the stronger will. I have a friend who said it wasn't the terrible twos or even the threes that did her in, it was the f--king fours that she had to survive. Amen.
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