Cadence has always delayed bedtime as long as she can. When she was a toddler, she would stay in her crib (mostly because she couldn’t crawl out of it) and she would sing, tell stories, babble.....and sing again for up to 2 hours. She did not cry, so she must have been contented. As she grew older, and went into her toddler bed, that became a different story. Now she could get up and hide in the hallway if she was lonely, or not tired, or both. She moves like a little pixie from one room to the other. I could almost see the wings flitter as she tiptoed quickly down the hall, in the semi darkened shadows of the living room television.
Many a nights, we’ve rocked and kept each other company. I really do think it’s a combination of being without a “mommy” at the orphanage for 16 months, and wanting closeness at night, which she probably did not get much of there as well. And coupled with this child’s ability to sing and talk and move. She’s a doer. She will happily take a wet wash rag and wash down the walls, the TV, the desks....the floor. She’s always been that way. I love that quirk about her. But it also means she is a high energy child. Not A.D.D. This girl watches closely and mimics. She can recite an entier song after listening to it only a couple of times. She once “read” the first two, and last one paragraph of a book to me, of course without knowing how to read sentences yet, she “read” the paragraphs by memory. Not just pieces of it, but entire paragraphs. OK this story does loop around to the Sleepy Time Fairy.
What I’m trying to say is that she is always going and is very high functioning, and does not seem to need as much sleep as most children her age. BUT there are times when she does need the sleep. The problem is, she doesn’t know when those times will come up, neither do we. So, we have set 8pm as her bed time during school nights. Reasonable.....OK but she doesn’t want to do that. She goes to bed then sneaks up then sings then sneaks up.....Until two nights ago. Ya see, that was the night the Sleepy Time Fairy was to make her debut at our house.
Here’s the plot (as told by the Mommy and Daddy who invited the Sleepy Time Fairy to our house)
When a girl is almost 5 years old, she’s old enough to get visited by the Fae creature. She flitters into the house, thru the cracks in the doors, and shakes off her bits of fairy dust. Then after she’s made certain all the almost-five year olds are asleep in our house, she leaves a coin on the girl’s dresser. When she’s found the perfect gift for a girl who went to bed on time, she flitters away. Perhaps one time it will be a trinket bracelet, or a shiny rock, or a glass pebble, or a sealed vile of her dust. Maybe a few pieces of ribbon for her hair. Perhaps a dollar. But it is always left in the same place. On top of a piece of paper that Daddy designed from the computer that simply states:

Dear Sleepy Time Fairy,
Please leave your gift here ------------->
Thank you for being my fairy. Love, Cady

Now, if the fairy noticed that she was in bed by 8pm but did not get up....(and believe you me, the fairy would know!) She will wait till the wee hours of the morning to deposit the treasure next to the arrow. Then she will go back to slumber in our garden, that is what she does best, herself. If she did not notice Cady went to bed by 8pm....well, let’s just say, Sleepy Time Fairy will be able to sleep in the next morning without the worry of not doing her job the night before.




So far, the Sleepy Time Fairy has helped us thru 2 nights. Not a peep. Not a sigh, or a but but but......She watches the clock, tells US when it’s time to go to bed, gives a kiss and gets a book which one of us reads to her, then off she goes to Slumberland, so as Sleepy Time Fairy can wake up and get back to work.
Gotta love the fae creatures!