cracking the system

I might have mentioned: I have absolutely no control over my daughter's sleep. She sleeps when she wants for how ever long she wants, and that is only if I make sure that she is clean, fed, sung to, and snuggled in her bed. God forbid, we should be out and about when she decides it is time to sleep. She'll either sleep for five minutes in the car and refuse to take a nap for the rest of the day - or she will fuss until I manage to drop everything, rush home, and put her down.

I have, however, figured out a sure-fire way to get her to sleep for a long period of time. It's simple, really. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. All I have to do to ensure that Alice sleeps for longer than 2 hours, is: MAKE PLANS! That's it. She could have been consistently sleeping from 10am-11am all week, but the moment I make plans to get lunch at noon, she sleeps until 1pm. If we have a doctor's appointment at 1pm, she won't take a morning nap just so that she can go to sleep at 12:30.

My child is some sort of genius. She is slowly training me to give up any semblance of a life that I have to cater to her every whim. The funny part about all this is - I don't mind. She flashes me her gummy smile - gives me a little "mommy giggle" (the giggle she saves just for me when I get home from work), and I'd do anything that she wants.

I know this will be problematic when she gets older and needs things like - limits, rules...etc... - but right now, I'm perfectly content making plans that sound something like, "I'd love to get lunch. Why don't I call you between 10:30am and 3pm when Alice wakes up from her morning nap, and we'll rush out to the nearest restaurant to eat before she decides its time for her afternoon nap."

This might be the reason I'm losing touch with all my childless friends.