On the Naughty List Already?!

That would be me, not Keira.

Why?

Well, it all started with a pair of Dora slippers, which my parents bought for her a few weeks ago and which Keira has insisted on wearing to bed ever since. (YOU try explaining to her that slippers are for walking in, not sleeping in, because we haven't had any luck.)

Unfortunately for her us, the slippers do not stay on her feet very well during the night, and so quite frequently we are awakened in the wee hours of the morning by the sudden sound of hysterical crying coming from her room.

"MOMMMMAAAYYYYYYY! (sob sob sob) MOMMMMAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!"

Let me tell you that it is highly difficult to maintain one's Comforting Mommy Voice when startled out of a dead sleep (I may have mentioned briefly, a time or twelve, how sporadic my sleep is these days) by potentially baby-waking screams caused by a misplaced friggin' Dora slipper...especially when it happens a couple of times a week.

We now have frequent conversations about what to do in the event of a missing slipper:

Step 1: Check under your blankets

Step 2: Check on the floor next to your bed

Step 3: Consider coming over to the side of reason and wearing socks to bed instead, you crazy child!!

I'd like to think that, much like the "We Only Write on Paper" and the "Can You Ask That Without Using Whiney Voice?" campaigns, the message will eventually seep in through repetition alone.

However, it occurred to me at 2:30am the other morning, upon being beckoned to Keira's room in the above manner, that perhaps there is a simpler solution to this pressing problem:

What?

No??

Like I said: Naughty List.

Sorry, Santa. I'll try harder for Christmas 2011.