Go to Bed!

After a really good run at an awesome bedtime routine, we're now stuck in a horrible pattern.  Whether we put him to bed early or late, with or without a nap, it's an hour of excuses and a total exercise in parental patience. 

Boden's Top Reasons He Can't Stay in Bed

1. I have to go potty (usually he doesn't..."I guess there's no pee." he says.  Yeah, I guess not.)
2. My tummy hurts.
3. I want to lay in mommy's bed.  (Will you stay in bed and not utter another word?)
4. For a reason!  (I'm guessing he picked this phrase up from me, but he doesn't attach it to anything so his "reason" is always a mystery.)
5. I need a drink of water.
6. My tummy still hurts.  (What will make it feel better..."If you stay here."  Yeah, right, of course.)
7. I can't find monkey/spotty puppy/Georgie/Harry (oh, and here they are right under your blanket...hmmm.)
8. I have to poop.  (This one's usually legit, but still, if you went to sleep an hour ago you probably wouldn't need to poop.)
9. Can I have a huggie.  (Sweet.  Manipulative and conniving, but sweet.)
10.  I want mommy to stay with me.  (Hell no, Go. To. Bed.)

By this time, I've lost my mind, and if, Todd's home, he's gone to bed and fallen asleep before Boden.  I've tried to make it clear that if he doesn't want to go to sleep, fine (not really, but a new approach), just keep quiet and stay in your room...both of these things (being quiet and staying put) are impossible.  If you see my mind running by, grab it and put it to bed--it's exhausted.

Houseguests

It's here...a day I've both dreaded and looked forward to--we have houseguests this weekend. These aren't our first houseguests (let's call them "HGs" for short), but these are the first HGs that are neither related nor do they have a toddler/baby of their own. They have a high schooler and a college age child and have theoretically survived sleepless nights of endless crying and should have some understanding of this experience. However, I've met their lovely girls--one of them when she was a toddler around Boden's age, now--and I just don't believe they could have ever caused their parents any trouble at night (they might now, but not as young babes). I told Todd to warn them that Boden sometimes, without warning and oft without reason, has some yelling/crying at night...and the guest room is right next door to his room.

We gave the HGs fair warning and full disclosure but they insisted they knew what babies were like. Oh (insert nervous twitter), they know what their babies were like, not what this babe is like.

Ugh...of course, Boden was sleeping like a rock last week, but this week, he's got a cold and because we have company, it will probably turn into an ear infection and interrupted sleeping...for everyone.

Bed time

Last week, Boden made tons of progress in fine tuning his motor skills. He figured out how to open all the doors in the house (interior), then he figured out how to bypass all the "safety locks" for all the doors in the house. Natural progression, right? We thought it would take longer than 24 hours to accomplish, though.

He also figured out how to wedge his meaty little thigh between the bars of his crib. A logical person would say "great, my leg's caught. I'm going to have to calm down and wait for someone to help me." Boden chose the frantic route of writhing and pulling while screaming his lungs out. It happened twice and his leg was completely bruised all around his knee. I felt horrible and was convinced his crib was unsafe.

To prevent him from jamming his leg between the crib slats again, we got a mesh bumper to wrap around his crib; which he promptly figured out how to use as a ladder to freedom: Todd woke me up the other night with a "what was that?". I said "he's crying, let's wait a sec and see if he calms down". Todd "what if he got his leg caught again?". "I'll peek in. Wait, does it sound like his cries are getting closer?" I asked as I opened our bedroom door to find Boden running down the hall towards me.

Hmmm, guess that bumper didn't quite work the way we had hoped. We're on to plan D, now. Goal: no bed for this kid until we absolutely have to or he's going to be running into our bedroom every night...and I'll never sleep again.

Every Rose Has It's Thorn

Last night I was having an R-rated dream:  I was dating Bret Michaels --well "dating" might be a stretch--but we were out at a pool hall so that's more "dating" than I've done in a long while.  And, why did Mr. Sandman choose him for my dream mate?  I have no idea. but anyway, there was lingerie involved and I was admiring my nice tan, when I heard a baby crying.  I said to Bret "Who has a baby in a bar??".  The crying continued and suddenly I was being ripped through dream land to the harsh reality of being awaken by an angry, angry baby.  My baby.  I don't know what Boden's problem was but he wanted to yell about it for an hour and a half in the middle of the night...in the middle of my nice dream.  The nerve of that kid, sheesh.

Halloween

This year, Halloween coincided with Daylight Savings time--I've been sweating about this for months (since we moved the clocks forward, in fact).  Boden has been going to bed around 7 and getting up at 5:30--not ideal, but okay.  But, I didn't know what kind of wrench this was going to throw into our sleep wheel.  I thought if we kept him up later, he'd sleep in...turns out he had plans to yell most of the night--or was it the howling of a little werewolf cub??

Before Boden turned into a pumpkin, we went to a friend's home for a fantastic dinner (most dinners I don't have to plan or make are great, but when they include popovers, it brings them to the next level of "fantastic") and some playtime.  I thought a group photo of the little ghouls would be cute so we spent 20 minutes or so trying to get them all in costume at the same time.  Dorothy and Toto were ready and patiently posed while the toddlers toddled around pulling their costumes off, poking each other and looking everywhere but the camera.  This is one of the best pics where you can actually see two of the three faces and they are all (kind of) in costume.