Day 464 - Debate Me

My kid is weirder than your kid. 

I'm being serious here. Ellie's really weird. I'll fight you on it. Well, actually I'm not going to physically fight anyone on it. People like Allen Lindholt and Malachi Eliasen frighten me too much to fight physically. 

However, I will debate anyone on that point, anytime, anywhere. As long as there's podiums. And a moderator. There has to be a moderator. Otherwise, how would we know who won?

Moderate this...

I realize that I can't just make a broad statement insinuating that Ellie is weird without any evidence to back it up. Never fear, I have two such examples ready to go. On second thought, maybe this is just normal toddler behavior. It could be but I really don't know.

For exhibit one, let me flash you back to this morning. Of course, Ellie's internal clock started beeping around 4:30 this morning. Despite her epic tantrums, I was finally successful in getting her to lay back down for a little bit. The key set of words is 'little bit' as she was back up by 5:00. At that point, Bethany finally got up with her so the two of them could have a fun morning together.

After mother and daughter managed to read through every library book currently in our possession, the time had finally arrived for them to eat breakfast. However, it wasn't Cheerios or Mini Wheats that caught Ellie's eye. It wasn't even toast or fruit. No, the thing Ellie desired more than anything else at that moment were tacos. 

"Mommy make Ellie tacos?"

"No, we're not having tacos for breakfast."

"Ellie tacos."

"Ellie, it's 5:30 in the morning. I absolutely refuse to cook you tacos."

**with quivering lip** "Tacos."

Such wise words straight from the mouth of Snoop.

Now, I certainly understand Ellie's desire for tacos. Who doesn't love a good taco? However, most people don't call tacos a breakfast food. I'll concede breakfast burritos but never tacos. Despite Ellie's quivering lip and sad eyes, she never did get her pre-sunrise tacos. Lucky for her, we are going to make tacos for her on Friday as a result of this whole endeavor.

For exhibit two, let's flash forward to Ellie's bedtime. While that time of the night has always resulted in some weird stuff, I think it's just gotten stranger as time has gone on. For one, what used to be one simple bedtime story has now evolved into a long and drawn out bedtime routine. 

First, we do Ellie's nightly bible story in the rocking chair. Then, we do one or two more rocking chair stories depending upon the length. After that, the time comes to move to the bed where we read one or two more books. Finally, we each take a turn lying on the floor beside Ellie and saying our goodnight prayers with her. Oh, we also push play on "The Lion King" soundtrack sometime in there.

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba

I admit that all of this seems pretty normal. Where it gets a little odd though is when you consider the amount of "beings" that Ellie shares her bed with and now refuses to go to sleep without. In no particular order, there's a pillow shaped like a cat, her blanket, a quilt, Sheepie, Leon the lion, Koco the bear, and a two -foot tall stuffed octopus. 

To take things further, Ellie's not just sharing her bed with all of these "beings". You see, she is actively holding Sheepie, Koco, Leon, and the octopus in her arms as she drifts off to sleep each night. Honestly, Bethany and I have no idea how she is even falling asleep with four stuffed animals stuffed in her arms.

As you can see, Ellie is truly weird from sunup to sundown. As I stated previously, this may be normal toddler behavior but I have nothing to compare it to. In closing, if you believe your kid is weirder than mine, feel free to let me know. Just make sure you have a podium handy before doing so. #DaddyWrite

Insert non-applicable cute baby photos here for posterity.