We Are a Happy Family

When we visit Grannie (a.k.a my mom), Mimi loves to haul out all the old Barbies. This is how she put her Barbie family to bed. Coincidentally, our REAL bed at home looks just like this at any given time between 3am-7am! Mimi finds her way to our bed at least once every night. (Only she snuggles up to Ken/Mike, unlike in the picture.)

She loves to snuggle up to her daddy and Mike is so patient; he either lets her "scwoosh up" or hauls himself out of bed and takes her back upstairs to her room. I try to get up at 5:30am to drag myself to the gym and, thanks to Mike being Mimi's bedtime buddy, I am usually able to do that. My mom jokes that Mimi is a Mommy's Girl, which is true, but at heart she's Daddy's Girl. During our end-of-summer, 10-day long visit to my mom's house Mimi began to ask for Daddy about day 5. He's the one she wants when she hurts herself or when she wants a snuggle or when it's bedtime.

I know all the child-rearing books have a lot of good, sage advice for how to get your child to sleep the night through in her own bed. I know we'd have a better night's sleep without the up & down the stairs sleepwalking. I know I'd be better rested without Mimi's foot in my back....but when she's a teenager who rolls her eyes at my every move, these toddler snuggles will sustain me! How many years do I have left of a little girl who wants to crawl into bed with us, feeling safe by our very presence?

Besides, locking her out of our room didn't work.