our little bedtime monster

The battle at bedtime has been one of our biggest struggles as parents so far, Landry can be so sweet during the day and at bedtime she flips a switch.  Since this summer everything about Landry's bedtime routine has been out of whack.  First it was staying light outside until 9 pm so we would get a late start, then in September before Hayden came we realized we needed to get Landry back in check, we found ourselves battling with her every night until close to 10 pm.  It was awful!  We finally starting giving in just so she would go to sleep, rubbing her back, playing with her hair, rocking her and ultimately giving in to any other manipulation technique she pulled.  This quickly became tiresome and something had to give especially since I am heading back to work very soon.  We talked it over and decided we would BOTH take a hard stance...one book then lights out...NO back rubbing, rocking or cuddling.  We put a 10 day reward program in place...a trip to the Dallas zoo!  My Aunt Sarah gave me the idea to let her pull of a ring each morning she has "gone to bed like a big girl". So far it is working very well.  We have had a few bad nights but most of them have gone very well.  She is excited about the zoo but more than anything I think she likes the structure and routine.  I'm not going to lie it's tough and leaves very little time for Trey and me to chill, but when she is down by 8:30 nothing is better than that.  It all starts with dinner at 6:00 sharp (I have been cooking every night and have some new easy recipes to share soon), then straight to bath, jammies and brushing teeth,  a short playtime upstairs before our one book and lights out.  She still insists on listening to her Christmas CD, I'm sure she will have all the songs memorized by next Christmas.  I took a few pictures of our bedtime monster and her reward system I crafted.  Keep in mind she was a great sleeper until shortly after her 2nd Birthday...that's when everything started changing.