In bed by eight! Toronto!

My middle child is not a boring child. If people have spent even 3.2 seconds within 100 yards of her, they know her name. She’s smart, she’s quick, and she’s quirky. She has quite a few fears, some of which remain over time, some of which come and go. Her latest fear? Going to bed after 8:00pm.

Saturday evening, the minute it turned 7:00, she wanted to be in bed so that she’d be in bed before 8:00 because she needs to get up “when there is a seven”, and she needs to be able to get enough sleep before then because she can not sleep in.

We were heading home from the in-laws’ place on Sunday night when Liliana looked at the clock and noticed that it was already 8:04pm. She started to worry about the fact that it was already past 8:00 and WHY had we kept her out this late because she NEEDS to be in bed.

Always quick to point out our parental failures, Liliana then said to us, “It makes me think you’re not that helpful of parents! It just makes me think that!”

At least we always know where we stand with her. There’s no guessing.

We got home, got the kids ready for bed, and tucked Preston in while Liliana was clearing millions toys off her bed. When she was finished, she ran out to the kitchen and said to Noah, “Dad! We need to get me sleeping! Toronto!”

That’s the other thing. Liliana has quite an extensive vocabulary–”a common misconception” being her latest favourite phrase–yet she’s been substituting “Toronto” for “pronto” lately and it’s given Noah and me quite a few laughs. I should tell her that she is suffering from a common misconception.

This kid, man.