Punishing the Mama

Cassidy's started a new trend ... punishing me for my evenings out. 

One day a week, I take the evening off and play volleyball.  I usually have dinner by myself after work, and head straight to volleyball from there.  Most of the time I don't get home until long after Cassidy is in bed, usually around 11 or 12.  After a quick shower, I hop into bed and attempt to sleep.  It always takes me some time to settle down after an evening of volleyball, so unlike most nights, I lay there awake for a bit. 

The past few weeks, Cassidy has woken up about 20 or 30 minutes after I drift off to sleep (sometimes before).  I sleepily make my way to her room, completely exhausted from volleyball, and get her settled back in bed where she agrees to go back to sleep.  This cycle repeats itself over the course of the next 2-3 hours, with wakings every 30 minutes or so.  Most of the time, we hit 3 or 4 am, and she'll stay asleep for the next 3 or 4 hours until wake up time at 7.  By morning, I'm completely physically exhausted from volleyball, and running on maybe 3 or 4 hours of interrupted sleep.

On Tuesday, she set a new record.  She woke up at 2, 2:30, 3, 3:30, and then stayed up from 4am all the way until morning.  At 4, Jeff went into her bedroom  where he dozed in the chair for the rest of the night while cassidy played with everything in her room.  At 6:30 I stumbled to her room, which looked as though a tornado had hit it.  I was greeted with "Mama, I spilled my cup of water" which she was working on sopping up with some old burp cloths.  In my sleep deprived haze, I did not take a picture and wish I would have.  Jeff went to get ready for work while I cleaned up her toys (and "put them up"- which means took them away) because Cassidy refused to help pick them up.  Then I got a very tired and crabby -read: uncooperative- girl dressed and ready for daycare.  AND THEN SHE ASKED FOR A STICKER!  Seriously!?!?!

This has got to stop! She's almost making my night out not worth it.  Almost.