Persistence

Persistence is a virtue: it is a wonderful attribute for an adult facing a tough challenge. Stick-to-it-iveness is a sign of leadership, strength, and courage. On Wednesday night, we saw in the Libutti household Jenna's level of persistence and were awed... and wanted to kill her.
Jenna woke up at 3:10am Thursday morning, most likely because I had left her window open a crack and it got a little too chilly. When she woke up, I went in to her room, closed the window, gave her an extra blanket and tried to settle her down. After a few minutes, I left. She was not happy. Then Dan went in to see her. A little while later I went back in. Then Dan went in one more time to tell her to knock it off.
Want to guess what time our persistent one finally gave up and went back to sleep?
5:30am.
Arghhh.
At times it was comical; I even giggled in our bed because she got so ridiculous. She was crying, then screaming, then screeching, then would settle down and was just calling out, "Dad. (3 second pause) Dad. Daddy. (another pause) Dad..." and of course tried yelling ,"Mom-my! Mom-my!" a hundred times. At one point she was saying, "Get me out!!! Get me out!!!" and got extra points for creativity when she yelled, "Me wanna take a nap!" which is Jenna-ese for "get me out of the crib, let's sit on the couch together all comfy-cozy and you nurse me until I fall back asleep again."
She obviously woke me, Dan, and Michaela up. She even ticked off the cat and SHE started caterwauling. It was quite a scene. But we were tough and didn't rescue her and the next night she was back to sleeping through the night with no problem.
So when Jenna is all grown up, and is facing some type of obstacle in her life, I can tell her with confidence, "You know, Jen, you can stick to it and succeed... if you can scream for two and a half hours just to get out of your crib, you can push any agenda, no matter how small, forward to completion."