I’ve committed the sin of ditching all good parental advice last Wednesday night. Worn out after a particularly long event, I returned home with Kirra exhausted.

I skipped her bath (parent sin numero uno), nursed her to sleep (death to naptime), tried laying her in her crib without moving her or jostling her to wake her (impossible), ran to her and picked her up as soon as she started crying (spoiling our child), took her to bed with me (I could suffocate her), and then allowed her to stay up giggling for the next hour (insanity during exhaustion).

At first, she laid with her arms wrapped around my neck, lifting her head every so often to make sure I was still there. After about twenty minutues of what I like to call “hug-checking” she sat up and smiled…then started laughing. We played for the next thirty minutes, wrestling, laughing, and playing games. When my husband came home he said, “what are you two still doing up?” and it took us a good hour to get her to bed after that. I’ll never forget Kirra’s need to be with me the other night. Some things are worth ditching the rules for.