Madeleine's love of reading

Madeleine has finally gotten to the age where she likes to "read." Several times throughout the day she will pull out a book or two and pretend to read to her dolls or her sister or sometimes just to herself. It's really cute--she sits there and tells stories about the pictures "the yellow lion goes roooarrrr! You better watch out because he will eat you up!" But there is one slight complication--bedtime.

First off, Madeleine hates to go to sleep. She fights it until she finally just collapses. When we put her to bed it takes a good 20 minutes of us singing and telling stories for her to finally relax enough to fall asleep. But sometimes she seems relaxed but isn't. Thus enters the problem with the books. The other night, an hour after we had put Madeleine to bed, we hear Miriam talking. Joel goes into their room to discover the light on and Madeleine in bed with Miriam. They are surrounded by a stack of books. Finally at 10 that night, Joel managed to get them both back to sleep. Then again the other night, I went in to find Madeleine with the light on and in her own bed reading. Although I think that it is very nice that she wants to read, she can't be turning on the light at 9 at night in a room she shares with the baby!

Fortunately there is an easy solution to the light--she doesn't have an overhead light, just a lamp, and that is easy to unplug. And last night we let her read on the couch for about 30 minutes before going to bed. Hopefully that will solve that problem of her late night reading. Now I just need to figure out how to get her to relax and go to sleep.