Monsters in the closet?

So..... Last Monday John left for a TDY trip and I was here with the girls. No big deal, I had done it many times before but not like this.. Annabelle refused to nap, screaming and crying for me when I would put her down. I thought "ok, she will just go down easily tonight" so we skipped nap time. Bedtime came around and the screaming started! OH MY GOD... screaming and crying and calling for me, asking for everything from "milk" to "carry you" (she says this when she wants you to carry her) to "go potty" to "juice" and "rub back! rub back!"... you name it, she was covering it! After two hours of crying and several trips to comfort her, to no avail, she finally fell asleep. The same goes for Tuesday and Wednesday nap and night! Wednesday was just horrible.. I was really sick of it and my patience was gone.. I seriously thought something was wrong with her... she just changed over night into this child I didn't know... Happy during the day but once night or nap time came, she was just horrible... So I decided to get some text help and bought two books "toddler 411" and #scream free parenting" both of which I needed after Wednesday night...

She never mentioned being afraid of anything in her room but she just started watching Monsters, INC and I thought what the hell.. (I really had nothing to lose) and decided to "fix" the monsters if they indeed existed in her closet! One book suggested "monster spray" (a bottle of whatever you spray in her room and closet) to keep those boogers at bay and make one of her animals (in our case Goggy) have super monster butt kicking powers! So I talk her though what I am doing with the monster spray (bottle of water, sprayed all over her room) and that they really hate the way it smells even though she can't smell it and that the monsters are terrified of goggie (a stuffed dog if you were wondering) ... I even went so far as to growl and bark like goggie would do to keep the monsters away... and had a chat with goggie before leaving him at the foot of her bed.

Not so much as a peep came out of her! OH MY GOD! Now, John was home Thursday so there might be that coincidence of her sleeping but I really think it is Monsters, Inc issue.. Now we hear "no monsters" all the time and she has slept each nap and night with little to no resistance! I love it!

I just thought I would share with you all... feeling pretty good about my parenting skills now and might be able to make it through the next stage of toddler hood!

One other milestone! Annabelle is really going potty well and both Tuesday and Thursday at preschool she was dry all day long! They told me they didn't change one wet diaper! WOW.. she really is going all the time now but I really think it just as much about getting candy as actually needing to go potty! I am very proud!

OK... gotta run! love to you all!
Carolyn