How to get a monkey to sleep...

Emily & I arrived safely in Hull at my parents' house yesterday right before lunch. We successfully made the 4 1/2 hour trip thanks to DVD's, sing-a-long CD's and lots of snacks. :o)

By 2:30pm Emily was definitely ready to go down for her nap. Up until this point using a Pack 'N Play has worked out fine, but we weren't so optimistic this time. Grandma B put her to bed and left to run errands while I laid down on the couch. After about 10 minutes I could hear the rattling of the doorknob. I got up to peek around the corner in the hallway and could see the door cracked open with a little hand slowly emerging, testing the waters. I had to try very hard not to burst out laughing. After another 5 minutes she stuck her head out and saw me. Busted! Next I tried to get her to lay down on the "big bed" like Mommy. I demonstrated by pulling back the sheets and everything, but she just wanted to "jumpin the bed". Go figure! On the third attempt I put her back in the Pack 'N Play again. I laid down on the couch again and heard the door rattle after 5 min., but she didn't come out. In fact, she didn't come out for almost an hour. She was not sleeping, however, because I could hear occasional clunks and squeaks and words. I'm pretty sure she spent most of the time sitting in the closet looking at Grandma's extensive book collection stored there.

So how do you get a monkey to sleep? You wear her out. After playing hard all day, including chasing a cat around the farm and being chased by a little dog, and staying up an hour past her normal bedtime Grandpa Boote put Emily to bed. After 5 minutes we heard a loud CLUNK. That was Emily falling on the floor as she crawled out once again. (She tends to get clumsier when she's tired.) After soothing her I put her back in and sternly told her it was time to sleep and she needed to stay in her bed. We didn't hear a peep after that. Except for a massive dirty/wet diaper at 5:30am, I had to wake her up at 8:30am to get ready for church.

Now we're up to another nap time. Grandma B put her down and it took almost 15 min. before I heard the door rattling. I even caught it on video (to be posted later). She had another dirty diaper (why must she torture me?!?). We read one more book and it was back in the PNP. This time I loaded it up with books for her to look at so she wouldn't have as much of a reason to crawl out. It has only been 10 minutes and I hear the door rattling again, but so far she hasn't emerged. Maybe we'll have another "quiet hour" this afternoon. ;o)