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Esme redefined 'tuck myself in' last night as coming across the house to kiss Daddy goodnight since she was bawling about having to go to bed a minute before when he had offered to kiss her goodnight and tuck her in. He had told her that her attitude had gotten in the way of her rituals and gave up - and after she finished crying she marched determinedly to complete it herself. We would have been more firm with her for staying in bed if her scowl expression and pure intent was not just so funny. We both had to keep ourselves from laughing as she charged across the hall saying 'OK I tuck myself in', offered a kiss, tucked Daddy's blanket in and then went back to her own bed and put herself under the covers again. ?? She calls out 'I see you in the morning!' to us, and lays down to sleep with no more fit. We giggle - trying not to let her hear us, because it is just so ... Esme, and she is so serious about 'then this is the way it should be done!'

She has been doing a lot this past week that shows she is maturing just a tiny bit emotionally. More humor - more bargaining, more arguing again. She throws a fit and then has an analysis several minutes later about what she is mad about and why Mom and Dad didn't fix the problem/react as expected. It can be hard though, for us, to keep a straight face when her seriousness borders on the absurd.