Katie No Nap and other Katisms

Just have to document, uh I mean share, a few oddities of my second child. She is such a trip sometimes. :) She seems to decide every few months that she no longer takes naps. Despite the fact that she obviously still really needs the nap. She sleeps in a toddler bed now rather than a crib, but I keep the crib in her room just for nap time so that I can force her to stay in bed. Up til now there was repeated protest during nap time, but she would eventually nap after being cajoled or left to cry a bit in her crib. (Not for hours or anything, just a short time and then she tends to quiet herself.) No longer. She did not nap at all this past weekend. It was really frustrating cause I count on that time to relax and not having it meant I was a bit more frazzled than usual. She spent all of nap time either fussing to get out of the crib or talking to her feet half in English and half in Katie gibberish.

There is an amusing side to this story - since she hasn't been napping she has been really tired the rest of the day, falling asleep in all sorts of odd places. She also refuses to go to bed at night time and ends up hanging on the gate in the doorway to her bedroom instead of staying in her bed. Of course after about 15 min. she is asleep on the gate which is quite hilarious to look at. :) As soon as I notice she's fallen asleep I'll pick her up and put her back in bed, which will usually wake her enough to only get back out of bed and hanging on the gate again. Repeat. About 4-5 times until she is so exhausted she just crys a bit when I put her back in bed cause she is too tired to get up and walk to the gate again. Such a stubborn child.

We are also starting to use time outs with her a bit cause she has started slapping people when she wants something they have or just when she is cranky in general. Poor Alex usually bears the brunt of this when he is trying to keep her busy or entertained. She knows she has to promise to act nice to get out of time out, so when it is time to get up (or way before) she'll start saying "N I C E" in a very drawn out loud way, which is hilarious because it sounds anything but nice. DH, Alex, and I have started saying this to each other when we sense someone is getting annoyed with us. She also seems to think that saying "Pretty Please" pretty much entitles her to whatever it is she wants. We, of course, do not give into these demands, especially when it is to eat chocolate right before dinner, or play in a busy parking lot, but that doesn't stop the shreiks of "Mama! Putty Peese!"

She has also decided she is going to be the next American Idol. She is always singing. Sometimes it is the ABCs (or her version of the ABCs - sometimes every other letter is B - i.e. A, B, C, B, E, F Beeee), sometimes she makes up her own song. On her birthday we took the kids for ice cream and she also had cake - both chocolate. A week later she is still singing a little song she made up herself to the tune of Happy Birthday that goes something like, "Chocolate Birthday.... Katie! Chocolate Birthday..... Katie!" And don't try to sing along with her - ever! She will immediately stop singing and shout - "NO, Katie singing." To which I usually respond by tickling her to death. :) What else can ya do?