Coughing girls need their mama too!

So I've created a really bad habit for Olivia...Every night at bedtime I have to lay with her after we read our books and sing our songs. My heart melts when she says, " I need you mama! I need to cuddle!" How can I say no to that?? Well, this always ends up with both of us falling asleep sometime between 8 and 9 p.m., which means I get nothing done around the house. I wake up around midnight, stiff from sleeping on about 7 inches of a twin bed, and trudge to my king size bed for an hour or two of decent sleep before Maddie wakes up to come to bed with me, or daddy gets home from work and wants to chat. I've decided to try to break Livvy from this habit, but as we all know - old habits die hard....

Everytime I'm going to get tough, Livvy says something that just makes me putty in her hands. (She's pretty smooth for a three year old!) The other night, I'm trying to sneak out of bed without her knowing, she gives this fake cough, and says, "Well....Coughing girls need their mamas, too." She's right, you know. Coughing girls do need their mamas. How can I say no to that???

Finally, I've resorted to bribery. Liv's new favorite thing to do is puzzles, so I bought her a few new puzzles, and told her that if she sleeps in her bed all night long, all by herself for three nights, she can have the first puzzle. It's a Tinkerbell puzzle, so she's very excited to play with it. So far, one night down, two to go...Wish me luck!