Sticky Business

My ubiquitous 4-year-old, Minx, is going through a new phase. Every weekday morning she is awoken at 5:30 by my husband going to work and refuses to go back to sleep. I've tried everything from threats to incentives to keep her in her room but nothing works. She JUST DOESN'T CARE. I settle for her coming into my room so that she doesn't wake up the other two kids but she never goes back to sleep. She fidgets, makes squeaky noises rubbing her hands slowly along the sheets, burrows to the bottom of the bed, and slithers feet-first off the bed inch by inch to escape downstairs and watch TV.

Lately, she has added a new segment. She has always helped herself heartily to the food in the pantry, leaving a trail of Goldfish detritus all over the sofa and floor in the family room. Now, in this warmer weather, she has discovered the joy that is the freezer. On Monday I lifted a throw off the sofa to fold it and discovered a bright green puddle with a wooden Popsicle stick laying neatly in the center. She must have hidden it under the throw when I came downstairs.

After a couple such incidents, I sent her to her room for a major time-out. She went rather too willingly and soon enough I discovered that she had bypassed her own room and gone straight to mine where she was lounging in bed, watching TV. So I took her and her piggy bank to Target where we bought a child lock for the fridge-freezer.

This morning, the lock was busted open and there was a bright red puddle (again, centered with a Popsicle stick) on the rug under the TV table.

This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall Pass. This, too, shall pass ......