Monday’s are for Mimi. My girls often sleep at my parents’ house on Monday nights. It’s one morning a week that they get to sleep in a little later, otherwise, they get up with me and I drop them at my mom’s before I leave for school. I have found Tuesday mornings to be a treat…quiet with no one to worry about but myself.

The last few weeks, Adi has opted to sleep at home. She’s having an almost ten year old sleep regression. I’ve had to lay with her for her to fall asleep most of her life. When we moved to our new house over two years ago, she started being able to fall asleep on her own. For the last few months, I’m back to laying with her. Bedtime is a rough time of day for Adi.

Mornings are also tough for Adi. She often wakes up grumpy and I usually make things worse. Sometimes, I don’t make her ponytail high enough, or tight enough. Sometimes, thanking her sisters for being kind humans isn’t fair.

However, this morning, it was just Adi and I since her sisters had slept at my parents house. As we made our way out the door, I stopped in my tracks and said, “Thanks for getting up so nicely these past two days. Maybe you’re finally earning that basketball hoop for your room.” Adi has really wanted a basketball hoop to hang over her door in her room. We’ve been dangling this over her head, encouraging her to earn it by being a kind human. (I know I wrote yesterday about setting the bar high…we’re just trying to survive this middle child!).

“Dad won’t let me,” Adi replied right away.

“Let’s call him right now,” I said. “I bet he’ll feel really proud of you too.”

So as we drove towards my parent’s house, we called Arnauld who was already at work. I shared how great Adi had been over the past few days. “She’s working really hard,” I embellished. We gushed over her for a few minutes.

As we said goodbye to Arnauld and I hung up the phone, I looked back at Adi in the rearview mirror. I could tell by the smile on her face that she was feeling good about herself. “Maybe we’re favoriting you today,” I teased, using her number one accusation…we are always “favoriting” someone other than her.

“Keep your eyes on the road,” she said, still grinning and letting me know that she was all done with being in the spotlight. Typical Adi.