Bedtime- Forgetfulness and Poop

Bedtime. Arghhhhh!!!

It can be one of the most frustrating parts of my day. And I'm (hopefully) done with it for tonight. But it took a lot of talking.

Eli and Evan had a great time at the babysitter's tonight. As so often happens, a great time comes home to a grouchy time. So we got home and Eli and Evan were being incredibly grumpy and calling me "Meanie" and all the usual stuff. (Of course Kendall was only home long enough to be cool and fun before he had to head off to work.) Eli was mad at me because I didn't wash his penguin pajamas today and he wanted to wear them tonight. So after that everything was all my fault- he traced it all back to the "thing with the jammies."

Finally, I had them in bed. Apparently I started saying something then stopped and said something else instead. I barely remember this. This is exactly the kind of thing that drives Eli crazy. For the next very long time we went round and round. Eli begged me to say what I had been going to say and I couldn't remember. He begged, nearly coming to tears a couple times.

So Eli gave me a choice: He thought that either he could ask me questions to help jog my memory or I could just think really hard and remember. So, okay, ask me questions. "Was it something about going to someone's house? Are we going to have pizza for lunch tomorrow? Was it about me and Evan sleeping together? Was it something about punishing us? Was it about moving or changing houses? Or going to a store?" The only one of those that slightly rang a bell was the one about punishing them. Grrr... He even wanted me to call Kendall at work to ask him what it might have been.

He just would not take "I just can't remember" for an answer. He even said, "If you can remember when I was a baby, why can't you remember this?" I took it from there, thinking that this could be a good diversion. "Eli," I said, "I remember when you were a baby because that was such an important and special time. I had my little baby, Eli Kendall. You were so important. People can usually remember important things, but not always the unimportant things. So this must not have been important." Even that didn't work.

Eventually, I just had to forbid him to talk about it anymore. After that, I heard him mutter, "Having a baby's not important." Ahhh!!!

Anyway, they're quiet now. It's actually one of those rare evenings when they stay in their bed and I only yelled in there once when Evan wanted me to come cover him up: "If I come in there I'm going to take away your monkey!" It helped that Evan had to go poop during the shenanigan with Eli. Then I was able to tell him, "You are not going to be allowed to come out to go poop again." (He's still maintaining his ability to squeeze out some poop most nights after he's supposed to be falling asleep. It's always a good way to get permission to come out of his room.)

But yes, as I was saying, they're quiet now. All is (for the moment) well on the home front.