The Cuddler

Elizabeth believes that the greatest reward she can bestow upon us is to cuddle with her at nighttime. I admit, that Daddy does like to cuddle with his little girl. But she literally dangles it in front of us like a carrot. If we do something that she wants:

"Daddy, I'm going to cuddle with you tonight!"

If you don't continue to give her what she wants or upset her in some way, she takes it back:

"I'm not cuddling with you tonight, Daddy. I'm cuddling with Mommy!"

The other day when she said this, my response was "Yay!" The look on her face was the definition of befuddled. She said it again, and I said "Yay!" again. She was momentarily confused, but I don't think she ever really thought that Daddy wouldn't want to cuddle with her. Ah, how the mind of a 4-yr old works.

Then there's the "bait 'n switch" which has been happening a lot the past several weeks. She'll say throughout the day/evening that she's cuddling with Daddy. And, at the last minute, after story and prayers,

"I want to cuddle with Mommy!"

Mommy does her best to encourage cuddling with Daddy, but to no avail.

Elizabeth would set time bounds on cuddling as well. She usually breaks it down into 10 mins, 5 mins, or 2 mins. If she says she wants to cuddle for 10 mins, that usually means she wants you to stay there until she falls asleep. If it's 2 mins, it means she wants to do something - play with her dolls, look at books, or rearrange her room - after a short period of cuddling. 5 mins is a wildcard. It could mean that she's really tired and falls asleep quickly. It could mean that she wants to chat for a while before being ready to fall asleep. Ya just never know.

She's pretty serious about the 2-min rule. She'll ask, "Is it 2 minutes yet?" repeatedly until you answer in the affirmative. After doing this the other night, she looked at me and asked

"Why are you still here?"
"Uh, I'm just not ready to go yet."

*momentary pause*

"Why are you still here? Why don't you go downstairs?"
"Um, ok."

Never a dull moment with the Sweetpea. Just don't let her know that we do still kind of like the cuddling.

- Rich