She got her own room.
(To share only with 400 LPS toys, and a plethora of stuffed animals and baby dolls.)
Alas, she still was not satisfied. Many nights she would sleep on the couch in the living room. On on the floor in my bedroom. Or the fold out couch bed upstairs in the family room. Or right next to Screamapillar on a narrow twin bed.
No amount of pleading, scolding, cajoling or outright bribery would make this child sleep in her own bed more than two nights in a row. Last night we had a little discussion about why she wouldn't stay in that "room of her own" that she had been begging for all these years?
With the saddest frown you ever did see, and tears streaming down her face she told me "I'm lonely!"
Since I'm a amazing mom, I came up with a solution on the spot. "What if we got you a pet that would sleep in your room with you?" At this point, Hubby glares at me as if to say "are you insane?" We decided that a hamster or gerbil wouldn't be good, since that one time when she pulled the tail off a gerbil at a friend's house.....
Birds are not so cuddly, and they are messy, and we do have two cats....
And then we came upon the perfect solution: fish. Cheap, easy, and she has no qualms about flushing them and getting another when they inevitably become floaters.
We cleaned up an old fish bowl formerly inhabited by the last ill fated fish who lived here, and made a trip to the pet store. Twenty-six cents later, Eclair was the proud owner of two little fish.
They had no fewer than twelve names between the front door of the pet store and the front door of our house. They are currently being referred to as "black fin" and "oro."
I'm not sure if this is going to work as far as solving the bedtime issue. She went to bed happily in her own room for once. But the last time Hubby went to check on her AT ELEVEN PM, he returned to report, "SHE IS STILL SINGING LULLABIES TO THOSE INFERNAL FISH!"
.
