Milestone: Staying in bed

Alma recently got a clock that determines when you toddler wakes up. We moved Alma's wake up time from 5:30am to 7am (over the course of the last few weeks). It's awesome!

We first set the "bunny wake up time" (which isn't an alarm, but just the light silently switching from highlighting the sleeping bunny to the bunny-about-the-town) to a time earlier than she was getting up (5 am) and then moved the bunny wake up time back 5 minutes every day. She is either excited to see the bunny awake when she gets up or, if she gets up before it is "bunny wake up time," she stays in bed and waits for it. She knows that she doesn't get the reward unless she waits for "bunny wake up time." 

Alma is a very rewards-driven child so it works well for us.  Rewards in our house are such thrills (ha!) as singing her favorite song (once everyone else is awake), reading an extra book in the morning, getting to give the dog his bowl of food, etc. They don't have to be extravagant and we have even phased them out because she is just excited to follow the rules of staying in bed until bunny wake up time. 

http://www.amazon.com/KidSleep-KSCLB-Classic-Blue/dp/B000VVIHPS/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1359574020&sr=8-13&keywords=clock+toddler

[This post is a follow up to Milestone: Getting up from bed]