Vaseline - who sang that again?

As those of you who have been reading for a while now know, Aslynn has a terrible time staying in bed at night. She loves to climb out of bed, jimmy her door, and sneak into Micah's room. Then she announces herself loudly and climbs into bed with him, because she hasn't figured out exactly how and when to whisper, and the jig is up.

We've tried music and nightlights to give her room some creature comforts that may entice her to remain peacefully in bed. We must have been dreaming to think that would be effective. I don't know what we were on. Not even threats of soother confiscation and a smacked bottom work. She peers around the door to see us approaching, and then turns-tail toddling back to bed with a look of shock and horror on her face, shouting, "No 'pank! No 'pank! Sooder! Sooder!" She then extends with an open hand her soother soon to be shelved. Maybe this is an indication she doesn't need one anymore.

We've finally resorted to closing her door tightly in hopes that Houdini won't figure out the doorknob. Her door sticks a little bit anyways. There's no sneaking in on that girl when she's asleep! If the door doesn't give you away, any movement will trigger a sixth sense and her head will pop up from beneath the covers. So generally, now once she's down, we leave her alone. I think we need to swap her drawers with Judah's. His clothes are in her room and hers are in Micah's. We were planning a room swap, but I can't see that happening now. I think we'll put Judah in with Micah instead of Aslynn with Micah.

I believe all this rambling adequately sets the stage for our most recent coup d'état. I don't know how much foreshadowing I want to give here because I think I'll give away the ending. Aslynn is in bed, or very quiet, anyway. Micah is stirring a little, but not much more than usual. He has his 'family' in bed with him; his stuffed animals Horsey, Seal, Elephant, Teddy, Odie, Riley, T-Rex, and Rusty were having some sort of a pow-wow. We thought all was fine and dandy and went to bed ourselves.

When we entered Aslynn's domain the following morning, there was a Vaseline container lying empty on the floor. It was all over her wall, her bed, her dolly (just caked with it) her pyjamas, her face and her hair. Yeah, her hair. Faith removed the greasy monkey from the room. What do you do? We had been using the Vaseline on her at night to help her eczema. I guess she just thought that too much of a good thing is a good thing. So I found out that diaper wipes work better than cloth or paper towels: cloth cakes and absorbs it and then the challenge is to get it out of that; paper towels, though disposable, don't quite hold up to the rigors of the task at hand. Wipes have a hint of moisture, a lot of strength, and you can chuck 'em when yer done.

The laundry came fairly clean, though a pair of fuzzy gloves that were employed in the application of the said mess are taking a little longer to lose their greasy nature. The walls and bed look normal as well due to the wonder of diaper wipes. And Aslynn - well, three baths in one day didn't cut it. We resorted to other measures, such as massaging cornstarch into her hair and then washing it. It took another two attempts before she looked presentable enough to go out in public. Even then she had a 'Goth on a bad day' look with her hair being darker than normal and shimmering with a semi-glossy appeal.

Needless to say, within days she was back into the flour, dumping it into the toilet from the bag in the pantry. We finally bought a child-proof container to prevent further aggravations.

- Mark