MAYBE it's the long sunny evenings we've been enjoying of late, but the wee woman, who normally embraces any new challenges and sticks to them, has been going through a rather strange phase.
Any suggestions are most welcome, readers, because the hubby and I are at the head-scratching stage of parenthood at the moment.
The issue is bedtime. Normally an occasion which poses no difficulties, the time for sleeping has now begun to resemble a battlefield.
The problem is that the wee woman refuses point-blank to sleep in the new bed that, until the last fortnight, was her pride and joy.
She doesn't have a problem with brushing her teeth and reading her bedtime stories, and even happily climbs into bed. But as soon as the hubby and I wish her 'Night, night', the crying begins.
From her tiny baby days, the wee woman has always happily slept with the light off.
These days, however, it's a very different story.
Unless her lamp stays on, she stubbornly refuses to even consider settling for the night.
In fact, such is her determination that, even if the hubby or myself switches it off, she still insists on tottering over herself and turning it back on again as soon as we've left the room.
Part of me is convinced that our current issue may have something to do with the fact that the hubby hasn't actually got around to dismantling the cot in the wee woman's room.
When we first decided to move her into her new bed, we thought it best to leave the cot where it was, just in case she didn't welcome the transition from one sleeping area to another.
I have to say, though, that we were pleasantly surprised by the wee woman's ability to adapt to sleeping in her bed, albeit for about six weeks at least.
Whatever the case, though, for the last few nights, the wee woman has slept like a baby in her trusty old cot, with her new bed forlornly abandoned, with only the two dolls and three teddy bears for company.
Oh, well. Looks like we'll just have to persevere with our attempts to coax her back into the bed because, come the beginning of autumn, there's going to be another wee woman or man who needs that trusty old cot.....