The New Bedtime Ritual

Caity has not napped for nearly a year now. This has many downsides (as you may imagine), but the upside was that she would go to bed fairly readily. Well, in recent days bedtime has become a struggle again. Now, it plays out like this: you put her in bed and read her some stories. You kiss her goodnight, turn off the light, and venture off to enjoy some hot chocolate. A short time later, you hear suspicious noises coming from upstairs. Upon investigation, you see her standing just outside the door to her room. "Poopers!" she announces. No, they're not in her diaper (yet)... she wants to put them in the potty. "Well, by all means!" you say, and usher her gladly into the bathroom so she can do just that. You even deliver books to her by request (Hop on Pop is a popular favorite) in order to facilitate the exit of said poopers. But after numerous hours (okay, not hours - more like long minutes), the awaited items fail to materialize so you heave a sigh of remorse, pack Caity's diaper and jammies back on, and tuck her back into bed with more stories. You then head downstairs (where your hot chocolate has long since turned into a cool sludge) again, her little voice babbling away in the darkened room behind you. Finally, finally, after a half hour or so, you realize that she has fallen asleep. The whole process, from start to finish, can take as long as 60 minutes. And the whole pooping-on-the-potty thing? A newly-discovered stalling tactic, nothing more. But you hope - oh, how you hope - that one day it will be the real thing, and she really will have to put some poopers in the potty. So each night she reels you in, hook, line, and sinker. Or should I say, stinker?