The no-nap monster

Well, naps are done. I've been aware of this time coming for a while, her naps have been unpredictable and sporadic for months now. But, they are officially done. So we started room time. I took Mala to her room, gave her some puzzles and her baby doll and told her she didn't have to go to sleep, but she had to stay in her room. Baby gate up, I'm feeling empowered. First day she cried the whole time at the baby gate, ugh. Second day, she played, she actually played. I could hear her talking, moving things around. Hooray, i'm an amazing mom. Well I go to get her out of room time and it appears she interpreted play as "destroy your room." She had pushed her little stool up to a drawer that I had not thought of...sunscreen, vaseline, desitin, you name it squirted all over her and the room. Well we are still working on totally Mala proofing her room, clearly, but in the mean time she pushes her little stool up to whatever she needs to reach, lights, hair bows, trash can. I guess what really needs to be removed from the room is the stool!

On another note, the need for the baby gate in the first place came last week when she woke Anil and I up by walking into our room munching on a pack of crackers. Oh dear. Until this time she would lay in her bed and sing or talk to her animals until someone would come and get her out of bed. Well that little pleasure in life for us is over. Now I wake up to her making all kinds of strange noises in her room along with a lot of grunting sounds as she tries to finagle the gate open. Oh dear.