Too tired to read? (Anna)

After a busy day of sun at the beach and the pool, Emma was pretty tired this evening. So tired, she even asked, "Mumma-Mummy take me to bed?" (For the record, this is extremely rare. Like most kids, she will deny that she is tired even when she can't hold her head up with exhaustion).

Caroline immediately said, "Yes. Up we go" and jumped up to take Emma up for a bath. But Emma, being a two-year-old, dropped back into negotiation mode, asking for, "Two more minutes. Please?" apparently fogetting that she had put the whole idea in motion in the first place.

She's got into the habit of reading ("all by myself") before going to sleep. It started off as just one book for a few minutes, after story time. The other night, the first thing she did before she settled on my lap for stories was to organize her own reading materials - eight books in all; apparently, she was anticipating a long night. Once she's ready to sleep (generally later than we're ready for her to sleep) she tucks them in next to her along with all her teddies and stuffed animals (we unload her bed each night, so that she actually has room to roll over).

This evening, when I went up stairs to check on her, she was fast asleep, dead to the world. She had two books - open - on her head, and another two on her chest. Apparently, she was so exhausted she couldn't even bring herself to finish a book.