Papa puts little miss to bed and not 5 minutes go by and she is asking for me. I try the “ole pat on the head and leave the room” tactic like ten times. Then she rangles me in for a hug, that melts me into staying in her room. I am determined NOT to lie down, no matter how tired I am or how much I want to trick Papa into cleaning the kitchen through avoidance. So, I sit in the rocking chair. After a little whining, she’s asleep.
I head downstairs, baby’s asleep and Papa is also playing my game of avoidance. She starts yelling, Mama! Papa jumps up to get her, leaving me with the kitchen.
Baby wakes up, and I dart the kitchen again.
My word she can scream! Apparently she hates her father or finds him scary or terribly annoying (like me). He bargains with her: if she calms down, she can get a hug from Mama. Next thing you know, she’s got me kneeling beside her bed, resting my head on her pillow, and she’s trapped it there under her arm.
She managed to keep me there for an hour, by stroking my back, playing with my hair and cuddling with me. We were both pretending to sleep, in a reverse staring match. Every time I opened my eyes to see if she had fallen asleep, she quickly shut hers. I’d open one eye to take a peek and catch her doing the same. Eventually, she blocked my view of her face with her bottle.
I won, after I tried to leave the room three times and she woke up and we started all over again. Actually, I gave up and left the room when she started playing with her Elmo. It was after 10, she was tired enough to give in.
I went down stairs and Papa had cleaned the kitchen, made little miss’ lunch and emptied the dishwasher. I won that battle, too!
Gotta be careful in this family, we play dirty.
My Year On Mat Leave 
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