Toddler Tricks - 31

Ways to Trick your Baby:

Problem: Your children won't go to bed. You've got a nice bed time routine going: they do the whole schpiel every night, but when it comes to actually walking into that bedroom, they refuse.  You don't want a major upset before bed, so you must trick them into going of their own voilition.

Solution: Mix up the very last part of the routine so that you have several games in place, all of which lead to the bedroom.  My husband and I have had luck with "horsie," where we get down on all fours and offer rides to the bedroom, caravan-style.  We'll sometimes dance into the bedroom, either swinging the babies in our arms, or inducing them to follow us in our joyous pied-piper celebrations. Sometimes we will have them put a stuffed animal or toy to bed as a continuation of a game we were previously playing with those toys, or we'll "steal their noses" and hide them in the bedroom.  Any of these work on any given night, provided it's not the same game we played the night before.


Ways your Baby Tricks You:

Problem: You're all in the bedroom.  Now your children won't get into bed.

Solution: We have a separate set of games for this purpose.  Sometimes we'll do a dance party where the babies will spin around until we lift them up and gently toss them into their beds in a fit of giggles. That's not been working lately.  Their favorite get-into-bed game as of late has been when I climb into one of their beds, and their father climbs into the other. We pull the covers over us, and reverse roles, asking the babies to give us a kiss goodnight and tuck us in. Then at the last second, we tell them that we don't fit very well in the small beds, and we're going to go into the big bed for mommies and daddies. The babies usually take our place in their beds without protest. Then, before they can change their minds, we commence to kissing them silly and turn out the lights and say goodnight.


___
If you enjoy this blog, please vote for Tales of an Unlikely Mother on Babble.com. We're number 15, just scroll down and click on the thumbs up.