What do I do with this?

[peaceful_mama]

Bedtime routine.

DS is 4. DD will be 2 in a month.

DS wants to have a book read to him and then watch his new favorite show, Jon and Kate plus 8, (he started really getting 'into' watching the ones where they show the kids a lot after one day when I said they were 4 like him...) So I DVR the ones where they show the kids a lot and they're doing something fun, like the one the other day was the dad taking ONE of the six four year olds for the day to a dairy farm....

Anyway, what's been happening is we'll be trying to read the book and DD will come and want to turn pages and keep trying to take the book. She is more than welcome to join us. There's room for her to sit by me. I've tried getting her involved in the page we're on (look, where's the duck? etc.) Nope.
She doesn't want a different book.
She can have the book when we are done. It's a new 'routine' so she hasn't figured this out yet.

Then we'll be watching the show and she's got to try to squish in next to me on the side her brother's on. She doesn't want to sit beside me on the other side. And neither does DS--he claims he can't see the TV. (I don't see the difference, but obviously he does because he always wants to sit in the same place.) Eventually she will either accept the other spot or go play, but it's after a minor scuffle.

My lap so far has never been an option because the baby is nursing there on his nursing pillow since I am in the middle of the couch with no armrests.

HELP. DS is enjoying this time---when DD is not doing this stuff! I'd like to avoid a solution that involves something like locking ourselves in the bedroom to read...
I guess too I kinda feel like this is DS's time, he goes to bed earlier than she does and then she can have me to herself, well, with the baby maybe, till she's ready for bed.

[LynnS6]

What's your partner doing at this time?

I think 1 1/2 or 2 was about the age where we had to divide and conquer with dd too. So, dh and I would trade off: I'd do ds 2 nights, he'd do dd 2 nights, then we'd switch.

That lasted about a year until dd was old enough to sit through some books. Then when ds started first grade and had to read aloud to us each evening, we switched again - with dd staying with one of us while ds read aloud to the other. Then when we start reading the bedtime stories, dd joins us.

If divide and conquer isn't going to work, then I'd find something that's just "hers" that she can do during that time (and that time only), like a puzzle, maybe some music to listen to, and see if that helps.

[peaceful_mama]

whoops I posted twice cause the first one didn't show.

Unfortunately dh is at work. we have my mom who lives with us and is home in the evenings. She and i actually divide and conquer on dd and newborn DS--I get the newborn, DD falls asleep with her, at dd's request. (bigger ds will lay down in his room and fall asleep on his own after his time with me)

the baby is sometimes actually nursing sometimes sleeping. usually if he's not actually nursing, he'll end up with my mom to avoid the bouncing around. (that's what happened tonight)

I wonder if she would take something else....when we are reading a book, she wants OUR book---not another one. She wants to flip around in it HER way while we're trying to read it.

She has 'her" time with me usually for a bit after DS goes to bed. (she naps, ds does not, he falls asleep within usually less than 10 minutes of us tucking him in at 8 she is up till 9 or later.)