Getting Ahead of Myself

Tonight as I was sitting on the couch working on a craft project, I patted myself on the back and congratulated myself on how well Regan has been going to bed. As I'm sure I have made very clear, getting Regan to go to sleep is not always easy. For the past couple of weeks, I have been putting a baby gate up in the door so that she can't get out, the dogs can't get in and wake her up, and I can get the door almost closed so that it is very dark and quiet.



Anyway, back to the story. Regan had been in bed for about an hour. She will sing and count and talk to herself until she is sleeping. When all was quiet in the room, I assumed that in record time she had gone to sleep. Ha ha ha, I laugh at that now! Enjoying the quiet, I sat on the couch pleased as punch that my brilliant gate idea was working out so well. Fewer tears, quicker wake to sleep times, you get the picture. So, I"m sitting pleased as can be with myself and with Regan until this comes to the door and asks me for a kleenex because she was a little "messy":

Obviously, as I was patting myself on the back, Regan was busy getting into a few things. The most obvious is that she opened up a box of Desitin and proceeded to put her "lotion" all over her leg. She then emptied an entire box of kleenex trying to get herself clean. She also removed her pull up and undressed herself and then redressed herself. So, I have a dilemma....should I be upset that my plan isn't working and that my child obviously wasn't doing as she knows she is supposed to do? or....do I ignore this whole situation given the fact that:

1. She was working on her fine motor skills opening up a box and popping open the lid of the Desitin.

2. She was exploring some sensory integration activities as she spread the "lotion" as she calls it over her body, but this obviously backfired as she hated the mess on her hands.

3. She practiced some functional skills of dressing and undressing although she needs a little work as the shirt is on inside out and the shorts were on backwards (and on a side note, 9.9 times out of 10 this is always the case: shoes on the wrong foot and underwear and shorts on backwards)

4. She put the empty kleenex box in the trash (we've been working on cleaning up) after she emptied out all 200+ sheets of kleenex (which somehow did not make it into the trash, but were strewn like confetti all over the bed)

5. Marvel over the fact that she did this in complete darkness and completely out of character, did this in silence. I wasn't sure she knew what being quiet meant, but obviously when it works to her advantage she does know the concept of being quiet.

In the end, it was late and I couldn't face the dilemma. I got her cleaned up and put her to back to bed where she promptly fell asleep, obviously exhausted from all of her activities.