Praise The Lord

Okay, I know about 5 days ago I said come back tomorrow and I'd give you my list of of ways to improve the MRI experience, but clearly I was lying. I will get around to it. I have definite ideas about a multitude of ways the experience can be improved, trust me.

BUT, something has happened that has pre-empted that post. Something miraculous. Something wonderful.

I no longer have to put Punkin to bed every night. Can you believe it? Isn't that amazing?

Seriously though, for almost three years I have put Punkin to bed every single night, except for the rare occasions when I wasn't home at bedtime. And believe me, it was getting OLD. Of course, the blame for this rests mostly on my shoulders, much as it did when Bubba was younger and I was putting him to bed every night.

Here's the thing -- I'm a control freak. Some of you may be shocked. Some of you might not be. When the kids were small, I was convinced that I was the only one who could put the kids to bed "right" -- whatever that means. I was convinced that Mr. Daddy would do something "wrong" and the kids wouldn't fall asleep. He wouldn't know the routine. He wouldn't say the right things. So I did it.

Once Punkin was born Mr. Daddy began helping with Bubba. I had to turn loose of the reigns a little -- I had no choice. But only on Bubba. I was still in charge of Punkin. So we started taking turns, which was great. Only that meant that on some nights I was putting TWO kids to bed, while at most Mr. Daddy only had one and some nights he had NONE.

Which was fine, for the most part. Occasionally I felt a little bitter about it, but unless I was really tired it didn't bother me too much. Until recently. Punkin has learned how to push every single button I have and even some I didn't know I had. She has implemented numerous stalling tactics and when I have attempted to put a stop to them, she flings herself into a tantrum.

A screaming, crying, yelling bedtime is not how I want to end her day. Finally, two nights ago I reached my wits end. I stormed out of her room and found Mr. Daddy. "Please. Please. Just for a couple of nights could you please put her to bed for me? I CANNOT take this anymore. I need a break." He agreed and he went in to calm her down. She is usually a complete angel for her father and a little devil for me and if any of you have any thoughts on why this might be, I would LOVE to hear them.

Yesterday on the way home, Mr. Daddy said he had a new plan for bedtimes. We would each take turns putting one of the kids to bed. One night I'd do Punkin and he'd do Bubba. The next night we'd swap and so on an so forth.

I could have wept with joy. I'm hoping that a break from me will help break Punkin of some of her bad habits. We'll see. But this is all I ever wanted in the first place. Parity.