It’s hard to break habits once they start. Giving up chocolate, coffee, smoking. No, I’m not a smoker, but I was just naming a few habits that could be hard to break. I can’t imagine going without the thought of popping a delicately sweet piece of milk chocolate into my mouth and savoring it. The heavenly bitter-sweetness of it rolling over my taste buds, as it melts into my mouth causing it to water even more. The chocolaty smell hitting my sense of smell and…hang on a second while I go get some…

It started about a year or so ago. My daughter had this high fever that I was having trouble breaking. I had taken her to the doctor and she was given meds for an ear infection. But that was only the day before her fever reached 103F. She woke me up crying in the middle of the night. I rushed into her room to find her not only covered in sweat, but she had thrown up all over her bed. She was burning up so I thought what best than to put her straight into the bath. I washed her off, telling her everything was okay. Once she was out and dressed I put her on the couch, gave her something for the fever, then went to change her bed sheets. When I came back she had nodded off to sleep, so I left her there, all snug and warm, tucked into a fresh blanket on the couch.

About an hour later she woke up crying again. Same thing, sweaty and covered in throw up. Another bath and this time was put in my bed. She stayed the whole night without waking and without throwing up, though that didn’t mean I slept peacefully. Her fever had reduced a few degrees, but was still too high. I even made a trip to the Children’s hospital about thirty plus minutes away, only for her to be given a gatorade and nausea meds. She stayed with me that night and the following night, just so I could monitor her fever and be close by in case she needed to throw up again. But ever since then she thinks it’s okay to hop into bed with me, especially when she’s not feeling well.

“Don’t you want to go sleep in your very own bed?” I ask her.

She casually shakes her head while sucking on her thumb. She stares up at me with those bright blue eyes of hers and immediately I thought of Puss in Boots from Shrek and how he would look at people with a cute little pout and those big soft eyes. I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere. She was winning me over. I had to change tactics. Think of something that may work.

Finally, I had a thought. “I thought you told mommy that you were a big girl.” She nodded her head. “Well, big girls sleep in their own bed. Don’t you want to be a big girl and sleep in your own bed? Mommy’s a big girl and she sleeps in her own big girl bed. You have your own big girl bed too. So what do you say I take you back to your room and put you back into your big girl bed?”

She looks at me and nods her head. It worked! Though for the time being as she still gets up in the middle of the night and crawls into bed with me. This whole big girl thing however, seems to not work so much on her any more. Time to think up of something else to use.