Exasperating

So so exasperating. That is the only way to describe our nights right now. Eliana, who used to be my very best sleeper, is now a nightmare to deal with every single night. She used to go right down for both naps and bedtime, but now she gets up a thousand times and Marcelo and I are going crazy. Especially on nights like tonight, where we can't start taking his quizzes for school until she goes to sleep. All the old tricks that we used when the boys had sleep issues do not work on her. Actually, there is no form of discipline that currently works with her. She is by far the most stubborn of our children. She has such a strong personality, which I love and which will be a strength when she's older. But right now, as a two year old.....ohhhhhh.

The big threat for the boys that always worked was taking away their puppies. When we threaten Eliana with this it goes like this:

Us: If you get up again, we're going to take your puppy.
Eliana: I don't WANT puppy.
Us: Okay, then go sleep without your puppy.
Eliana: NOOOO! I want puppy!!!
Us: Okay, then get in bed and you can have your puppy.
Eliana: No, I don't want puppy!!! (Said with an enormous attitude and pouty face.)

Whenever we tell her, "If you do X, you'll get Y", she says she doesn't want Y, even if it's her most favorite thing on earth, like cake. So we say, "Ok, fine, then you don't have to have Y." And then she flips, even though she just told us she doesn't want it.

I wanted to record these fun times because even though it's exhausting and frustrating right now, I'm pretty sure it'll be funny one day to look back on. I think.

It has now been 73 minutes since we first put her in bed, and I think she's finally staying. Time to learn some Operations Management with the hubs.