This Too Shall Pass....?

We are having one of those weeks. You know the kind, when a second glass of wine is a must, when nothing seems easy, and everything is a battle. Our lifelong fabulous sleeper has decided that bedtime, which used to be a relaxing time for stories and cuddling, will now consist of 90- 120 minutes of pure torture. 6:30 pm has signaled the beginning of the night routine since precious Tucker came to be. A nice bath, pjs, a drink of water, then settling into the glider by 7:00 followed by a few stories and then bed by 7:30. No more. 7:30 comes and goes, and toddler refuses to budge from his spot on the couch in the den. Visceral  grunts and squeals that resemble a trapped bear in the wilderness emerge when I try to pick him up from said couch, and god forbid you tell him to say goodnight to the iPad.

The struggle ensues, and somewhere after wrestling him into bed, negotiating the many trucks and trains strewn across the floor in anger, and loosing my patience at least half a doze times, 9:30 creeps up and the lights go out. Surely this has to be a phase, right? Otherwise there would be no second children on the planet and husbands would be forced to sleep on couches for all eternity. As my roommate from college Hillary (and fellow mom to a toddler) reminds me, this too shall pass.

Fittingly, this picture from moms.popsugar.com is titled 'winning the toddler bedtime battle'.