Free babysitting – a rare commodity for us

A few times while we are in Australia the last few years, we have taken advantage of the fact that Chris’s parents are here, available, and mentally/physically capable of taking care of Kaia, so we have gone out a few nights without her and left her in his parents’ care. Free babysitting is not a luxury we enjoy almost ever. One of my best friends babysat for us twice last year. I don’t trust my parents to ever take care of Kaia without me there. And Chris’s parents live all the way across the world from us. So these free childcare moments are definitely very, very rare for us. The first night this trip when we had his parents look after Kaia, Chris was doing a status flight to and from Sydney, while I was having dinner with a friend in a nearby suburb. The second night, we went out with Chris’s friend for dinner and drinks. While both nights out were enjoyable, what we did not expect to come home to (anytime between the hours of 9:30-10:30pm) was an awake Kaia Pookie. Kaia was holding out for us to come home and refused to let her grandma and grandpa put her to sleep. She fussed endlessly, making every excuse not to sleep. She even duped Chris’s mom into giving her more food after she had already brushed her teeth.

One night when we came back, we found her nestled in between them on the floor bed with an air mattress. She was lying on the bed, acting cheeky. Chris’s dad was pretty much passed out on the bed, while Chris’s mom looked exhausted and was attempting to soothe her into a much needed sleep. She saw us and immediately demanded to have daddy put her to bed. The next night, we both gave up, and she just slept in between us on our bed.

The older she gets, the more cunning and clever she becomes. I was hoping she’d just tire herself out and pass out from exhaustion, but she worked really hard to fight it off until we came home. More late nights are to come with Christmas quickly approaching, so this will be a temporary period of an increase in later-than-ideal bedtimes. But wow, her perseverance at such an early age is quite impressive.. even if I am not thrilled about her disrupted sleep cycles. I hope she can apply this perseverance to other parts of her life as she gets older.

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