Last week, when I was putting her to bed, I put my face really close to hers as she was drinking her milk. She peered up into my face and I smiled tenderly at her. She then proceeded to pluck the bottle out from her mouth and offered it to me wordlessly, with a raised brow. My heart melted at her generosity as I turned her offer down.
She spoke so much to me tonight, as I put her to bed. I tried to entice her into sleeping in the cot next to my bed, by turning on the projector cot mobile such that butterflies and leaves were projected onto the dark ceiling. She was fascinated but not fooled. I tried to pat the pillow in the cot and told her that she was sleeping there. Immediately came the pout and “Noononono”. She shook her head and hurriedly clambered out of the cot. I smiled and tried asking sweetly again. “Sleep there?” Her reply – “Zeep there”, before collapsing on MY pillow on MY bed. I burst out laughing and tried a few more times before giving up. She clearly wanted to be sleeping near me.
And so I tried to put her to bed. She kept offering the small spare bolsters to me. “Mama, mama…. bou-ster. There.” She passed me one, then said “One more”. I accepted her offering, and put her to bed. She asked me to turn the light off. “Off, mama.”. I did as told, and was very surprised when she spontaneously said “Dang-gyu”.
I sang her a lullaby. “Storp, mama, storp.” Sigh. I half-growled and told her to sleep. Immediately, she grabbed her bolster, and went into foetal position, acting docile. “Night-night. Night-night” she went, until i replied. She started babbling and humming to herself as I smiled silently, but she started going “Maaa-ma…MAaaa-ma” as if for sheer fun until I put my foot down (well, not literally) by turning my back on her. She was disturbed and started climbing over my side to put her face close to mine. Sigh. Doesn’t this remind one of puppy behaviour?
Anyway, she finally fell asleep after I patted the side of her thigh a bit. She touched her thigh after I lifted my hand, and was satisfied when I continued patting. I escaped the room right after she slept, and ran to the other room to kiss Christian good night. 3 minutes later, I heard a baby cry “MMAAAA-maaaaaaa” in distress. Sigh. Ran back to her and saw that she was on my side of the bed. She must have tumbled over to my side looking for me and bawled when she realised I was no longer there. Thankfully she immediately calmed down upon hearing my voice and fell asleep in 2 minutes.
And that, is the incredibly long story of Calista’s bedtime.
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