I put Alexander to bed tonight and, for the first time in a long time, just...walked away. Like a free person! I don't even know how long I've been held hostage on Alexander's floor every evening but it's been a long, long time.
He's been spreading his wings and developing his language skills and, in general, growing up far too fast lately. It's been a hard but good process (for both of us). With his new language skills he has started to express his desires and fears in very understandable ways.
His room is dark and scary and lonely. He doesn't like that his closet door won't close. He doesn't like the curtains above his bed. He doesn't like being in there alone.
Everyone else shares a room and he'd like to share, too! Maybe with Zoë. He likes Zoë. She's his buddy!
Also, while we're at it, everyone else has a special blanket that they say Mommy made for them. Rachel has a blanket. And Mimi has a blanket. And Benny has a blanket. And BoBo has a blanket. These blankets remind him quite a bit of his owl-birdie hat but they are not hats; they are blankets. Where is his blanket?
So...we looked at blanket patterns and found a sweet owl-birdie pattern that I will attempt to make this spring (after graduate school applications are in and my book is more finalized and so forth). He asked if I will make it "tonight!" but I told him that it will take some time.
We also floated the idea of rearranging the youngest three and giving Benjamin his own bedroom and moving Alexander in with Zoë. Alexander has been excited by this prospect for days now and tonight we're finally trying it out.
"I 'eep in BoBo bed! BoBo 'eep in top bunt! Benny 'eep in my bed!" Alexander has been telling everyone all day long.
He was still excited for bedtime tonight. He could hardly sit still through story time and instead ran back and forth between his potentially old bedroom and his potentially new bedroom, carrying all sorts of things from one bed to the other: his pillow, his blankets, his cherished stuffed owl collection.
When story time was over he said, "Now tan I go to bed?"
So I said yes (because there's really not much else to say when a child asks a question like that) and he ran and hopped into bed and tucked himself in.
He. Didn't. Even. Nurse.
He didn't even ask to nurse.
He was just so excited to sleep on the bottom bunk!
It's not going very smoothly. I did manage to walk away, but I've since been caught and he's now in my doorway begging me to come read in the hallway (so I will...after all, I have reading to do). Benjamin and Zoë have both gotten out of bed and I'm frankly not sure if they've gotten back in yet, so I have to go check on them as well. But overall, for the first night in new beds, things are going fairly well.
Actually, Zoë and Alexander were both just standing in my door asking me when I was going to come so I turned and said, "Go get back in bed!" and they both turned and scampered off down the hall. The little sillies!
We're crossing our fingers bedtime will start to go a little smoother (and by smoother I mean "not take four hours to accomplish") from here on out!
He's been spreading his wings and developing his language skills and, in general, growing up far too fast lately. It's been a hard but good process (for both of us). With his new language skills he has started to express his desires and fears in very understandable ways.
His room is dark and scary and lonely. He doesn't like that his closet door won't close. He doesn't like the curtains above his bed. He doesn't like being in there alone.
Everyone else shares a room and he'd like to share, too! Maybe with Zoë. He likes Zoë. She's his buddy!
Also, while we're at it, everyone else has a special blanket that they say Mommy made for them. Rachel has a blanket. And Mimi has a blanket. And Benny has a blanket. And BoBo has a blanket. These blankets remind him quite a bit of his owl-birdie hat but they are not hats; they are blankets. Where is his blanket?
So...we looked at blanket patterns and found a sweet owl-birdie pattern that I will attempt to make this spring (after graduate school applications are in and my book is more finalized and so forth). He asked if I will make it "tonight!" but I told him that it will take some time.
We also floated the idea of rearranging the youngest three and giving Benjamin his own bedroom and moving Alexander in with Zoë. Alexander has been excited by this prospect for days now and tonight we're finally trying it out.
"I 'eep in BoBo bed! BoBo 'eep in top bunt! Benny 'eep in my bed!" Alexander has been telling everyone all day long.
He was still excited for bedtime tonight. He could hardly sit still through story time and instead ran back and forth between his potentially old bedroom and his potentially new bedroom, carrying all sorts of things from one bed to the other: his pillow, his blankets, his cherished stuffed owl collection.
When story time was over he said, "Now tan I go to bed?"
So I said yes (because there's really not much else to say when a child asks a question like that) and he ran and hopped into bed and tucked himself in.
He. Didn't. Even. Nurse.
He didn't even ask to nurse.
He was just so excited to sleep on the bottom bunk!
It's not going very smoothly. I did manage to walk away, but I've since been caught and he's now in my doorway begging me to come read in the hallway (so I will...after all, I have reading to do). Benjamin and Zoë have both gotten out of bed and I'm frankly not sure if they've gotten back in yet, so I have to go check on them as well. But overall, for the first night in new beds, things are going fairly well.
Actually, Zoë and Alexander were both just standing in my door asking me when I was going to come so I turned and said, "Go get back in bed!" and they both turned and scampered off down the hall. The little sillies!
We're crossing our fingers bedtime will start to go a little smoother (and by smoother I mean "not take four hours to accomplish") from here on out!
Communication is a wonderful thing! It helps to solve all kinds of problems! I hope this solution works for bedtime!
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