Going back to bed

I walked by the stairs tonight and found a wide-awake three year old just sitting there in the dark. She's been getting up after we've tucked her in for the night and she usually makes up the reason why it was so important to come down while I'm standing there questioning her. Tonight it was that she needed two stuffed animals that were in the bin to go to storage. With Woof and Rainbow tucked under her arm she was sent back to bed. The rule being, if you come down when you're not supposed to, you have to take your self back up to bed. But I will wait at the bottom of the stairs until she's back in bed. 

Knowing better than to ask me to come up with her, she said, "Mama . . . if I were you . . . if I was adult, and you were a little girl I would go up with you."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"Well, what if I kept getting up when I wasn't supposed to, and you were tired of coming up the stairs so many times?"

"Well . . . if you were a really little girl, and you slept in my room you would sleep in a bed like Annabelle's."

[Annabelle is still sleeping in a crib. She cannot get out of her bed. Smart girl that Bronwen.]

"So, should you sleep in a bed like Annabelle's?"

She went back up stairs without any further opines.