Prior to Willa's arrival in our lives, I could be quoted as saying something to the effect of "I'm not going to be tied down by her sleep schedule." Or, "Kids don't have to go to bed at a certain time." My overall philosophy on this matter remains largely the same, but I now know how quickly things can deteriorate when a tired baby or toddler is in the mix. Those newborns I see sleeping in public places in carseats? Yeah, Willa gave that up when she was about 4 weeks old. When she got really tired as a baby, she'd just cry. And cry and cry and cry. On a plane, I could only ever get her to sleep by nursing her. "When she gets tired enough, she'll sleep," people would say. Nope. Not this one. Then there was the time she was 20 months and we took her to Costa Rica. She didn't sleep a wink our evening flight down there. She was up for over 12 hours. But you know where Willa does sleep really well? In her crib. Or now her bed. At night. Yep, seven to seven since seven months. She's pretty awesome like that. I'm all for flexibility, but why mess up a good thing? And even her naps have gotten much better too. In her bed that is. On the go? 20 minutes max. If it happens at all.
The point of this ramble is that going into last weekend's familiy wedding, we were a bit nervous about how Willa would do with the late nights a festive weekend required. Plus the time difference put us at a disadvantage. But the part of me who said those things back in the day kept reminding myself that kids need to be adaptable. And everything would turn out okay. Right?
Well, hey! Guess what? It did! Willa proved to be the life of the party. She stayed up past her bedtime three nights in a row, making it until almost midnight on the night of the wedding. She danced and danced and ran circles around her lame-o pregnant mom. She slept in her carseat on the drive home and then barely woke up when I moved her to her crib. She slept in until 9am the next day. And the day after that. And then easily slipped right back into her regular schedule. Score! A toddler sleep machine! Proud parents over here. As a wise family friend has always said, "Add up the pluses. To hell with the minuses." I think that applies particularly well to parenting.
^^photos above from night number two of partying. she was up till almost 10. after eating some cupcake herself, she then decided to distribute it around the room. any guest she could find got a little crumb. "why, thank you crazy toddler," they must have all been thinking...^^
^^"that the moon. means it's naptime. i say bye-bye." she wisely declared.^^
Sooooo, those are some pictures of our little lady in action! Such a fun weekend. And most importantly: huge congratulations and all the best to the happy couple!