Hide your children, hide the tequila, hide the goods! She's gonna find you, so you can run and tell that!

Emma has figured out that she knows how to open doors. On Sunday E started opening and closing doors with such ease, Ant and I just stood and watched. I noticed that she was doing it very automatically and I could tell she was not yet aware of her newly acquired skill. It wasn't until Monday night that the fun began. I saw the look in her face as she opened a door, stood there and paused. She slowly closed the door and reopened it and closed it and I could see the gears in her little head a turning. She proceeded to do this movement over and over and from room to room. Her free will had just expanded a little more.

Well she was actually pretty good about not opening the doors past her bedtime, until Weds. That night she was brave enough to test her limits and started opening her bedroom door over and over but never actually stepping outside her bedroom. She would stand there and say "good night mama". With each new phase a child goes through, there are guaranteed sleepless nights where you work on reconditioning them, and creating a new schedules/routine/discipline. I knew my sleepless nights were around the bend. This morning, 3am to be exact, I feel these little arms and legs trying to fit in that small space between me and the edge of the bed. I am too tired to argue so I let her be. I think she will fall right asleep, but she decides she doesn't want to sleep...after 30mns of her hitting me in the face I put her back in her room. She then proceeds to further test her limits and actually steps out of her bedroom to go play in the living room. I lost count, but I probably kept putting her back in her room about 4 times. Then she would open her door a crack to see if I was there and I would see one little foot step outside and when she saw me and she would shriek and run back in her room,slamming the door. This went on for a while. Eventually I was too tired to physically stand there so I would just say her name from my bed and I could hear the door slamming.

My only consolation from this 2 hour ordeal is, one, Emma is showing more fear of me and two, she is telling me more when something is bothering her. At 4am she kept the door shut but was crying "mama, yuck yuck, Emma yuck yuck". I went in and saw her in the midst of taking off her PJ's and diaper. After a clean diaper and a quick read and snugs, I left her on her own and asked her not to cry. She fought hard not to cry and it broke my heart but after that there was silence and I was able to sleep a whopping one more hour!!