20 October 2013

Things can only get better.

Yeah, so I'm quoting my favorite Howard Jones song, having spent the last few weeks in the turmoil that is transitioning from crib to toddler bed.  Oh Garrett, who's Howard Jones, you ask? Don't worry, someday there will be a post dedicated solely to all the music that I'll need to introduce you to, which of course will be fossilized by the time you're old enough to learn and listen, and God only knows what kind of crap will be playing on the radio when you hit your music-appreciation years given what's currently on air. 

Anyway, this has post has been swirling around in my head for a few weeks now, but I've been too sleep-deprived to focus let alone write about it.  I never thought anything could be worse than potty training, but I was wrong.  Putting you in your toddler bed has been the biggest challenge so far.  Add potty training into the mix, and we've got the banes of my existence. So years from now, when you read and reread these missives, I want you to know what an utter PILL you were during these times.  And then we'll laugh about it, and you'll buy me a glass of wine and we'll toast to your once little impish self, and marvel at the poised, brilliant young man you've become.  But that's like 30 years away, so let's just focus on the present.

Suffice to say, dear boy, you've not mastered the delicious concept of STAYING in your bed.  All night.  Instead, you choose to awake in the middle of the night...sometimes 1, sometimes 2, sometimes 3...and my motherly sixth sense seems to know it about 5 seconds before you appear at our door, your tiny silhouette shadowed by the nightlight.  You say all sorts of things "I can't close my eyes!" (Have you even TRIED?) "I'm not sleepy!" (How is that possible?)  "I want to play!" (Um, you never wanted to before.) "I'm afraid of the dark!" (Uh, for three years, you've slept in a pitch black room except for your glow in the dark stars....no issues. Now you have a nightlight AND the glow in the dark stars and NOW you're afraid of the dark?)

Anyway, weeks have gone by, I've gotten through my work days on 4 cups of coffee, and sadly, dreading what used to be the sweetest time of day--bedtime.  But we're working on it.  It's slowly getting better.  We've caved a lot.  We've slept on your floor....because let's face it (before anyone starts judging!), in the middle of the night, when everything is bizarre, and time is warped, and one feels lonely and crazed,  while wanting to take the easy way out and just make it quiet again, one caves...even if it means knowing that the kid is secretly cackling to himself because it's all part of his master plan. We've all been there.  To be fair, it isn't entirely all your fault.  We made two major mistakes---we not only moved you to a different room (downstairs for fear of you taking a tumble in the middle of the night), but we put you in an entirely different toddler bed, altho still with your crib mattress.  Maybe we should have kept you in the crib and transitioned it like it was meant to, so you would at least feel like something was still the same.  But we didn't, and it's too late to turn back now.

The best is when I have to pry you out of bed when it's time to wake up, because of course, now you are dead tired, and you all of a sudden find your bed the comfiest place ever, and you become a bratty tyrant who, despite your voluminous vocabulary, can only muster to shout "NO!" while I try to squeeze you into clothes, toss you into the car, and get us to where we need to be. No wonder I'm exhausted before the clock strikes 8am. Know this, sweetie...the thing I hate most in the world is to leave you thinking I'm mad at you...as these past few weeks have been pretty trying.  

But as I said, it's slowly getting better.  We've gone two nights in a row of you staying in your room.  Dear GOD, let this continue.  Until then, let's put some positive into this post and show all the fun things we've done this fall.  














































































































So, as I put you to bed a few minutes ago, and you've already been out three times, I reiterate the title of this post...things CAN only get better. In the meantime, STAY IN YOUR BED! 

xo