I am not sure how one little, tiny person can go for so long without sleep! We tried out best to do everything right today. We went to a Christmas show (lots of dancing and singing) and the show started at 3pm. Sadie's usual nap time is between 12:30 and 1:30 these days, so we figured she could sleep on the drive in to town. At first it seemed like it might work out perfectly. I fed her lunch and changed her into her beautiful red velvet dress and then nursed her until she was asleep. And then I made the transfer to the car seat.... except that her nap didn't make the transfer. By the time we pulled out of the drive way she was wide away and pointing out every thing that we drove past with a loud "ah" sound (which is the sound she makes when she wants us to look at something she thinks is interesting).
Then she stayed awake.... all the way to the show... which was an hour and a half drive.
The show was in an old theater with beautifully ornate gold and bronze walls. There were lots of kids dressed up in their Christmas best and the theater was filled with chatter. Sadie was reenergized. She sat on my lap (and squirmed, but otherwise did pretty well... she didn't cry at all!) for the entire two hour show (I explained to her before hand that it was going to be like going to Mass, because she knows she's supposed to be quite during Mass). She saw giant dancing penguins, a belly dancing hippo, a line of reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus, a ballerina elephant and quite a few other dancers (the show was a mix of costumed dancers that the kids loved and more traditional dance scenes). Sadie would get so excited during the animal numbers that she'd almost start to cry, so I actually liked the traditional numbers a bit more, although the animal costumes were awfully cute.
With less than five minutes left in the show Sadie fell asleep. Disaster!
I waited until the theater had emptied and very carefully carried her down the stairs. After all, we couldn't stay there and we were headed to Grumpa's birthday dinner. It was 5pm and Sadie had not yet had a nap.
The moment I put her into her car seat she was wide awake. She giggled through dinner and then played happily through a quick trip to Target to pick up a few things since we hardly go to town at all these days (I was getting nervous because the happiness had a sort of hysterical edge to it and I sensed she was close to snapping). And snap she did! When we got back in the car she was quiet for a few minutes and then began to cry. Then the screaming started. I tried singing, and I tried reciting one of her favorite books (The Big Red Barn). Nothing worked. I finally started to sing a little song I used to sing to her when she was tiny. She quieted down. Fifty repetitions of the song (it is short, but still, we'd nearly driven through a county!) later she finally put her head to the side and fell asleep. It was 7:30 pm. What a day!
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