So, I’ve been having a bit of an issue with Stella lately. She’s been getting awoken by Etta before 7am. I don’t wake up before 7am.

No let me correct that. I don’t wake up with children before 7am. They can hang out in their beds until 7am.

Stella realizes this and has an amazing 7am timer. If I tell her she has to go back to sleep, she’ll call for me again at exactly 7am. So that’s what I started doing. If she woke me up at 6:30am I told her it was the middle of the night and she had to go back to sleep.

This worked for a short period of time. Then she started calling me in at 7am and letting me know that she’d peed in her bed. Always after 7am. And she’d command that I change the sheets. I got wise to that and started refusing to change the sheets when she demanded. I’d get to them around 8am. But she kept doing it. If I made her go back to bed – she’d have an accident. Every single time. While wearing a pull-up.*

So this morning I figured it out. She started screaming for breakfast at 6:30. So I made her go to the bathroom and then told her she could have a banana (self-serve) if she was dying of hunger. She was quiet and dry until 7am.

Of course, Etta wasn’t, but that’s a battle for another day.

I swear these kids are far smarter than me already.

* which is somewhat baffling in and of itself.