This is Seven
It looks like six - but with easier bedtime routines.
She put herself to bed tonight.
Let me repeat this: SHE PUT HERSELF TO BED TONIGHT!
If this is what seven-years-old looks like I am all for it. No more screaming, or false tales of being “scared” or hungry or whatever else. I dunno what happened but a guy could get used to this. I asked her to brush her teeth - and she did! Then she futzed around in her room for a bit and then put herself to bed.
I attribute this to a few things.
Luck
The watch
The light
Age
If I had to completely guess, number 1 above would be the right answer but because all things aren’t black and white in this world there are some variables to consider.
1: The watch. She wanted a big girl watch so, so bad and despite the fact that she was dying to know what was in the box that was addressed to me that I would not open in front of her, she was good - and waited until her birthday today and the Birthday Santa came through this year.
She has learned that the watch has a flashlight, a reminder for her to drink water and she’s also set her own alarm to wake up to go to school tomorrow1. She loves her new watch.
2: Birthday Santa also brought her a night light in the shape of a cat that changes colors and even has a remote. We were using a book on top of a table lamp for a night light so this is an improvement for sure.
Age might have a thing to do with it too but I would put my money on the fact that she received 2 new toys that were bedtime related and she wanted to get to bed as soon as possible.
And she had a great day for her birthday. She didn’t have to go to school and instead we went sledding. We should have read the tea leaves when we arrived at the hill and there was nobody around, but we were dressed really warm and we did okay for the 20 minutes we were there - the first ride down was a success and then the second resulted in a face plant in the cold snow - and it was really cold - so we packed it in.
But she did get outside - which was the whole point.
We just had a really lazy day again due to the snow and cold. She watched her tablet, and played with her toys and lived in her imagination for the day as one seven-year-old does.
Dinner was homemade gnocchi by hand by Abuela and then of course - the cake. This too was homemade and was an Oreo ice cream cake.
So, so good.
It seems like yesterday that the nurse came in and told me to put on the scrubs labeled “father” and for a split second I thought they made a mistake because when I was told to get into these I wasn’t one - and for a split second I was confused and then I realized I was about to be a father right about now - 7 years ago.
Then it dawned on me and I welcomed her into our world.
Happy Birthday Little One,
Love, Dad.
the time of writing, she’s going - but things may change. It’s supposed to be bitterly cold.