bean's stubborn streak & her dream - our bedtime blues

i was just telling her paternal grandparents (ye ye & nai nai) that dh has not been impressed by the bean's behaviour the past few days, during which she maintained mexican stand-offs with her dad.

the most recent one occurred on wednesday evening. but let me give some background first.

the bean was given an advent calendar that had pockets for each date which i filled with chocs (foil wrapped choc santas, choc balls) and trinkets (colourful hair-ties/clips). the bean loves this calendar as soon as she found that she could dip her fingers inside each pocket and retrieve a foil-wrapped "tweat".

and because she's got chicken pox, we've been bribing her not to scratch her poxes with chocolate too. so she's become a huge chocolate fiend.

well, dh came home early wednesday and helped the bean get to the no. 3 pocket where she found a choc ball. after that dh told her that it was bath time and she should get ready for it. this is when she 'bit the hand that fed her' - she became petulant, "no! it's not bath time. no, i don't want to have a bath." she continued by saying that she wanted another chocolate ball.

dh then lectured her, telling her that chocolate is only for the late afternoons and she can't have more than one as it turns her into a little monster...or words to that effect.

anyhow, the bean didn't like that lecture one bit and started a one-note protest, "no!"

when dh tried to coax/reason/drag her into the bathroom, she stood outside and just kept uttering, "no!"

she wouldn't let me undress her and when we, finally, somehow, managed to get her to do it by herself, she just stood in the bathtub in her shin-deep specially-medicated bathwater and wailed, "no! no! no!"

i passed her her toothbrush and she just clutched it tightly, not letting go, but not brushing her teeth either, "no!"

when we took her out of the bathtub, which was accompanied by even louder protests, and brought her into her room, she still clutched her toothbrush.

she wouldn't let me put her into her jammies, and just faced dh, yelling, "no!", waving a hand in his face as if to ward him off or to wave him away.

dh turned to me and said, "i won't be defeated by a 3 year old."

eventually i had her bundled in bed and she fell asleep sobbing.

if her 2-3 year old tantrums are any indication, her teenage tantrums will be quite spectacular!

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she woke up late thursday night wailing and dh had to eventually put her into our bed while he slept in hers.

when dh asked her in the morning what upset her, she said, "a dream. the little kittens lost their mittens."