Acceptable. Not Acceptable.

So, it turns out I am raising quite the 'Miss Particular' child. And no, I'm not talking about Dixie. This fun little story is about Summer. Last night, at about 1:30 AM (so I guess that would actually make it this morning), Summer started crying. This means one of a couple things: 1) she's having a quick nightmare and the crying will stop in a few seconds, 2) she's lost her pacifier and can't find another one in her crib (we keep them scattered all over her crib for just such an occasion), or 3) she's hungry and wants a bottle. So, as I groggily pulled myself out of my slumber, I waited for the crying to stop-- which it didn't-- which meant we had situation number 2 or 3 on our hands. So I dragged my tired body across the house and into her room where I found her standing up in her crib and she already had a pacifier in her mouth. This left situation number 3. So I pulled her out of the crib and she immediately laid her head down on my shoulder. I thought this was good and that maybe she just needed to be held and would nod back off to sleep. So I sat my tired body down in the comfy chair in her room, and as soon as I did so Summer let out a nice little wail. Oops. Wrong move. She didn't want to be snuggled back to sleep. So I stood back up and the crying stopped. Alright. Off to the kitchen we go for the bottle, so Summer lays her head back down and closes her eyes. I open the fridge, grab her bottle, take it to the microwave to warm it up (I'm one of those bad moms that warms the bottle up in the microwave), and we're doing good. And then, *cry cry cry*. Whoops. What now? At first I'm thinking she's reverting back to when she always used to cry while her bottle was warming up. But then I remember her new routine is to hold the bottle top while the rest is getting nuked. Silly me. So I grab the bottle top and place it in her hand. The crying stops and she rests her head back on my shoulder. Bottle is done now. Put the top back on it. Shake it up. Head back to Summer's room to feed it to her. *cry cry*. Oops... she obviously wants the rocking chair in the family room. Change direction and the crying stops and her head rests back on my shoulder. (At this point I'm seriously thinking *wow!*). I sit in the rocking chair, she spits the pacifier out, feed her the bottle, wait till she's done, pacifier back in the mouth (and yes, her mouth is open and waiting for the pacifier), and rock rock rock, snuggle snuggle snuggle, and off to the room we go. Put her back in the crib, an extra pacifier goes in each hand, crib rail pulled up, and we're done. *sigh* Out the door and back to bed. Good NIGHT! :)
Holy cow. This child can CLEARLY communicate when you are doing something acceptable vs. not acceptable. And yes, I'm fully aware that I need to not let her be a spoiled baby about everything... and I generally do a good job of that... during the day. At 1:30 AM all bets are off and I have one goal: make the crying stop. :) Hope ya'll had a better night. :)