"Cuddle"

Andrina melted my heart again tonight. After her books which is normally the end of our bed-time routine, I put her into her crib and she protested. Instead of lying down and settling for sleep, she stood up and cried. I tried to soothe her and then left the room but she kept it up for over 5 minutes. She has been able to get herself to sleep on her own for over a year now so this is quite unusual for her her. I went up to her room and she was still standing up and crying, reaching out for me and saying, what I thought was, "color". I thought she was telling me that she wanted out of her crib to color with her crayons. I told her no, that it was time to go to sleep and to lie down but she just cried harder while still reaching out for me. I hugged her and she clung to me while trying to climb out of her crib. So I picked her up and held her and rocked her and it finally hit me that Andrina was not saying "color", she was saying "cuddle". The term I use with her but I don't think she's ever said it before. That was what she wanted. Andrina wanted to be held and cuddled. After about 10 minutes of cuddling, she was ok with me putting her back in her crib and she went right to sleep.