Exhausted

No, not me this time. It was my little boy this time! Pretty much every night this week one child or the other was screaming in my ear but not tonight. This evening he just settled in and slept on my chest. (Upstairs, the FP Gal was doing battle with Relia . . .)
Last night's fight with Relia was at least entertaining. She's been sleeping with a sippy cup and I think it's part of the problem. When she starts to settle in she sees it as a toy and uses the distraction to wake herself up again. In response I've started threatening to take it away if she won't stop screwing around.
Last night we hit the impasse. I threatened and gave consequences; she kept it up and lost the sippy cup. And the response? You'd think that I'd taken away a kidney. Crying and screaming and fighting and kicking. After an hour of this (there is a clock and I checked) she finally was worn out and dropping off. Her hand settled down limply and I could tell she was fading. Then. From somewhere deep down inside it occurred to her that she was missing the damned sippy cup.
By this time all I could really do was laugh. I popped out of the room and called to the FP Gal to take over. Only to find that she'd given up and was already in bed, though not asleep yet. I sat down and told her what was happening. I think that the comparison was the paperboy from 'Better Off Dead' with the eternal quest for two dollars. From me, "Watch, she'll be here at the side of the bed at 2am asking for her water".

Well, I was wrong. It was 1230am.