Birdie's Bedtime Battles, the Giraffe-y Skirmish

So Birdie's new bedtime schtick is to remove her blankets after being covered up and ask to be covered up again, and again and again and again. . .Sometimes though she'll mix it up and when one approaches to acquiesce to her demands, she'll bellow, "I do it!" and wail if you come any closer.  Oh it's the perfect chaser to the dinner-bath-and-bed extravaganza.  We should also mention that of late, Birdie likes to be covered up with not only her blanket, but the "mattress", "pillow," and blanket that came with a baby doll bed she received on her birthday.  Also, that the players in crib menagerie are not constant.  You know what they in Toy Land, "One day you're in, and the next day you're out."  Biride delivers her bedtime edicts in a whine that quickly escalates to a cry if one does not fall in line because, oh we don't know, like, maybe one didn't understand the whiny edicts?  Inevitably, if one attempts to leave the room and retaliate with the old cry it out strategy, Joe will begin to wail because "Clara is waking [him] up!" or "It's loud!"  This is if he isn't wanting to conduct The Late Late Show With Joe Ekkers for his little sister.  (This is all to say that bedtimes can be difficult when one's children share a room.  It ain't all flashlights under the covers and giggles about the crazy 'rents yet, Fans, and until then, we're makin' it up as we go along.)

Things devolved rather quickly tonight.  Julie will admit with downcast eyes that she pitched Giraffe-y rather callously into the basket, thinking Clara wanted Giraffe-y out of her bed.  Giraffe-y's eyes might have hit the doors on the cupboard under which the animal basket is housed, and made a sound like a gunshot, which caused Birdie to wail like her arm was being torn off.  That's when Joe helpful offered over the din that he thought Clara wanted Giraffe-y in the bed.*  So Julie then pitched--placed rather roughly?--Giraffe-y in the baby bed that resides next to Clara's bed.  (You'll recall that its linens are a permanent-for-now fixture in Clara's crib, so the baby doll bed is rather like prison digs.)  Giraffe-y's feet hit this thing sounding, if not like more gunshots, than rather loud, which prompted Clara to wail like her other arm was being torn off.  If she wanted Girafee-y out of the bed (read: her crib--emphasis added and the distinction from which some of the confusion stemmed), well, that was all forgotten.  Never leave a Giraffe-y on the field of battle.  It wasn't long after that Julie took her leave to do her own bawling at the dining room table.  Later she told Ted that she was feeling awful about losing her cool over Giraffe-y and Ted chuckled and said that he'd had discussions regarding Giraffe-y, too, and it is true that when Ted left the room, Clara was still bawling, and specifically for "Mama," which is when Julie cried like her heart was being torn out.  (Giraffe-y was in the crib though.)

If it isn't bedtime, it's long about this time in a tantrum that Clara might find the source of her torment, and take its hand, while she murmurs through tears what sounds like "Mo ma hand.  Mo ma hand." [Hold my hand.] and press it up to her cheek.  It's long about that time that one's heart melts and head shakes back and forth in love and wonder at this sweet and COMPLETELY CRAZY-MAKING girl, Our Birdie.

Clara and fellow patriots, including Giraffe-y, an innocent, caught in the crossfire.

Joe, having sought refuge with Neaky.